Bab 14: The Challenges of Dragon-blood
The six of us beamed back to the ship, but I could feel the Klingon B'Elanna's eyes on me the whole time. It made my skin crawl, but not because of her, rather it was my Dragon side. I did not like the idea of having this past life that I knew so little about and knowing that I was a ticking time bomb; who would?
Thankfully, the Klingon B'Elanna was escorted to Sick Bay when we returned which gave me some breathing room. Janeway seemed to understand that my mood was bad and let us go after a short debriefing, and then gave the four of us the next three days off. We all headed back to our ship, and I collapsed onto my couch as soon as I was in range.
"So, what was that all about?" Katye asked.
"Dragon blood," I sighed. "After the wraith, I've been researching all different types of elemental creatures, including Dragons. Somehow, there must be a Dragon ancestor within the Klingon bloodline."
"How could that be?" Raven asked.
"This universe is based off of the Endless Firmament. The term 'Human' refers to most bi-pedal races. Anything from elves to dragonites are a mixture of 'Human' and different elemental creatures, so it is possible. Klingons are known to be powerful warriors with superior strength, endurance, a prideful nature, and let's not forget their sexual appetite," Katye chuckled. "If that doesn't describe Becca in a nutshell, I don't know what does."
"Jok yu," I cursed.
"Don't act like we don't love all that about you, but it's the truth," Katye retorted.
"My problem is that I'm so heavily influenced by a side of myself that I know practically nothing about," I grumbled, sitting up. "If you hadn't stopped me, I would have ended up beating her half to death or worse before 'I' even realized what I was doing. I can't control myself properly."
Raven slid over to my couch and snuggled into my side. "I know it's hard on you, Becca, but we're here to help."
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head before sighing, "I know."
We still had not told Raven and Echo the true reason why Tori was doing all of this for us, leaving it at, we had all been closer than family in our past lives. They were doing great with their training, but I did not want to add any extra pressure on them. Knowing that I had the potential to warp all of existence with Chaos was not an easy burden to live with and I could not help but worry that they would grow to fear me.
The four of us talked for a while, but eventually, the others started their nightly training session. I was not in the mood to practice anything, so I grabbed a bottle of Spirit Wine and left the ship. It was after midnight, so I headed to the Mess Hall since I knew that it would be deserted at this hour, and it was one of the few places to watch the stars.
I sat down on one of the couches and poured myself a glass of wine. Sipping on it slowly, I stared out of the window and watched the stars streak past the window. I was lost in my thoughts and had no idea how much time had passed, only that there was half of the bottle left. What snapped me out of my brooding daze was the sound of the doors opening behind me. To my surprise, it was Janeway when I looked over.
She headed to the replicator and ordered, "Coffee, black."
The drink materialized and she picked it up, taking a sip before she walked over to me. She sat down on another couch next to me, but instead of greeting her, I took a drink from my cup and returned my attention to the window.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Janeway asked after a few minutes.
"Did Katye put you up this?" I asked.
"She may have asked me to come check up on you, but I probably would have later today. I could tell that there was something bothering you when you got back from the Vidiian compound. From Pete's and Tom's reports, it did not seem like you had too much difficulty, so I'm not really sure what could be wrong. You came through like you promised and saved the day."
"'Saved the day'," I scoffed. "Sure, I can take down dozens of men, but controlling myself is practically impossible. It turns out that Klingons have a drop of Dragon-blood, so out of instinct, I would have attacked the Klingon B'Elanna if Katye had not been there to stop me."
"What do you mean by Klingons have Dragon-blood?"
"Exactly that. Any dragon over a certain age can take a humanoid form and mate with other humanoids. Somewhere in the Klingon lineage, there is a dragon and, since dragons are elemental creatures, it doesn't matter how far back it is as long as they are a pure-blooded Klingon because it's such a strong bloodline. As Katye pointed out to the rest of my group, a lot of the familiar traits of Klingons, like their prideful and warring nature, superior strength, endurance, and aggressiveness are also similar to Dragons."
Janeway was clearly stunned by what I had revealed, and I smirked, taking another drink. I did not have a choice of believing it or not since my instincts could not be ignored. There was Dragon-blood in Klingon veins, no way around it.
"Why would you have attacked her for having Dragon-blood?" Janeway asked after she recovered from her initial shock.
"To my other side, she was a Dragon-blood challenger in my territory that needed to be suppressed. Not all elemental creatures can peacefully coexist with others of their kind. The number one killer of dragons is other dragons which is why they are practically extinct in this day and age."
"It doesn't make much sense that a race would drive itself to extinction."
"Dragons are more animalistic than most sentient species, but it's all about balance. If it was more common for them to coexist, the population of dragons would explode because if they aren't fighting, eating, or sleeping, they're doing another primal activity. Like all elemental creatures, they can be born from high concentrations of mana, but the conditions are much stricter for a dragon. My own Dragon side was born from a Chaos Storm which is like a massive, chaotic nebula."
"It must hard having that other side of you."
"That's an understatement," I said, before downing the rest of my cup. "It's hard to know where I start, and it ends. Despite the seal on my memories, they are slowly coming back as I regain my old strength, and the Dragon side can influence me more and more since it is the source of my power. It's hard to say whether or not I will still be me when I reach that point which is why I'm slacking on my training compared to the rest of my group."
"I see why you're troubled then," Janeway sighed.
"The situation with the Klingon B'Elanna was an unsettling reminder of my future. Katye is in a similar boat to me, but a Fairy Queen isn't as wild as a True Dragon. There is a whole side of me that I don't know, and I fear that it will swallow me one day."
"Is there anything that I can do to help?"
"Don't have her and I work together alone, unless the Doctor figures out how to make her half-human again. I shouldn't be in danger of attacking her now that I know and can mentally prepare myself but sending us on an away mission alone could cause other problems, albeit not as violent," I chuckled weakly as I refilled my cup.
"Consider it done," she replied and then took a sip of her coffee. "Since you mentioned it, the Doctor has developed a method to re-introduce the Klingon DNA back into the human B'Elanna. Whatever the Vidiians did to her, there was a problem with her cell's ability to synthesize proteins. She can't live without the Klingon genes, yet the Klingon one is fine without the human genes."
"Yet again, another sign of Dragon-blood... Strong vitality," I sighed. "I'm guessing that she refused the Doctor's offer to turn her back into a half-human."
"She did."
I took a drink from my glass and sighed, "I'm sorry. I may have saved them, but you have a whole new headache on you now. Two B'Elannas, and one is a pure-blooded Klingon... I don't envy you."
I gave her a smirk at the end, and she chuckled. It was not that I wanted to add Janeway to my little group, but it was nice to joke around with her. I had idolized her, so the fact that we could have this banter made me happy.
"Chakotay and I are certainly going to have some issues figuring out which one is our Chief Engineer and then where to place the other," Janeway said with a smile, before sighing. "Those two are bound to face their own identity crisis."
"True... The thing that B'Elanna hates the most about herself is her Klingon side, so not only is she forced to see the living embodiment of it, that living embodiment has to live with all of that hatred that had built up over her entire life. I'm not sure who I identify with more."
"You seem to know B'Elanna well," Janeway remarked.
"She and Raven have gotten close, but like I said, I see a lot of myself in her. She has had to struggle with her Klingon side just like I have to with my Dragon side," I replied with a shrug which was true, but not the whole truth, of course.
She nodded her head and took another sip of her coffee. "It's not just B'Elanna, but a lot of the crew. I can't deny that I've been a little jealous of how easily you've been able to meld in with everyone."
I chuckled, "It helps that I'm not really Starfleet despite my commissioned rank. While I understand why Captains tend to keep themselves at arm's length from their crews, that really doesn't work well in your unique position out here in the Delta Quadrant; all that can lead to is you isolating yourself since there aren't really any other Captains around, aside from myself. This is going to be a long trip home, Kathryn, and it's human nature to form strong bonds with the people that they work with and rely on. Before the end of this, we'll all be like a second family, so if you start looking at it that way, it will be easier for you to interact with the rest of the crew. You obviously have a nurturing personality if you were willing to get out of bed and comfort my brooding self, so the only thing that's holding you back is yourself."
Janeway chuckled lightly and agreed, "I've had similar thoughts, but putting it into practice is easier said than done."
"Most things in life are," I retorted.
We talked for a little while longer, but Neelix eventually came into the Mess Hall to start cooking breakfast. She excused herself a few moments later while I offered to give Neelix a hand with the prep since I was terrible at cooking. He gave me the first plate of food which I happily ate as people started trickling in.
I had always drawn people's attention because of the 'mysteriousness' of my race, but this time was different. The looks in their eyes were not of curiosity or traces of fear, rather reverence. I had seen it before when I had led the team to free the Grounders inside of Mount Weather. It was easy to guess what had changed after yesterday's rescue, so I could only imagine how crazy the rumors about us were growing.
As soon as I finished eating, I left the Mess Hall and headed down to the Aeroponics Bay. I may have been off but working with the plants was always relaxing and no one would be upset. I settled down on my usual padded mat and closed my eyes as I started to meditate. My group knew how I could be when I was upset by something, so they let me have space, but not everyone knew that.
I was so deep in my meditation that I did not hear the large doors open. Unfortunately, my other side was not fully asleep, and it was the one person who could wake up the cranky dragon. Before she could react, and I realized what I was doing, I had shot out of my seated position and grabbed the Klingon B'Elanna by her throat, lifting her off her feet. She dug her nails into my forearm, drawing blood, and, thankfully, the pain brought me back in control of myself.
I released her immediately and started to apologize, "B'Elanna, I'm sorry. You caught..."
Before I could say anything, she growled and tackled me to the ground. I hit the ground hard, but it only served to anger me. She straddled my waist as she pulled back a fist to punch me, but she severely underestimated my strength, and I flipped her over my head with a simple buck of my hips.
I was not in the mood to play around, so I channeled my mana through my body, increasing my speed to the point that I was a blur to the human eye. I scrambled to my feet and manipulated my artificial fingers to turn into bands of metal, and then restrained her like I had done to Tuvok.
"Damnit, B'Elanna! This isn't you or me! We're being influenced by our bloodlines," I snapped.
"Fight me, Bihnuch (coward)!" B'Elanna yelled.
"Don't test me, Klingon!" I roared, shifting into my Dusa form and flaring my aura to its full strength. "You have no idea of the beast that you are trying to wake up!"
The full strength of my draconic aura had cowed the proud Klingon. As backwards as it sounded, being in this form made it easier for me to control my Dragon side, so I took in a deep breath to calm myself.
"I didn't mean to attack you, but you caught me off-guard while I was meditating," I said before I changed back to my human appearance. "There is a Dragon in the Klingon ancestry, so with my own Dragon-blood, our instincts tell us to fight or fuck. This isn't either of us making the decision."
Before she could reply, my comm badge chimed, "Katye to Rebecca. What's wrong?!?"
I sighed, knowing that she had sensed my transformation, and tapped my badge. "I'll explain later, but everything is handled now. I'm about to head back to the ship. Give me five minutes."
"Alright, but I'll be waiting in the Shuttle Bay," Katye replied.
"Got it. I'll be leaving the Aeroponics Bay," I sighed, looking at the Klingon B'Elanna.
With a wave of my hand, the bands of metal shackling her returned to me, reforming my two fingers. B'Elanna collapsed to her knees without the support of the metal bands, her breathing shaky.
"I'm sorry, B'Elanna. This is my fault, and I will do my best to prevent this from happening again," I said.
"PetaQ (idiot)," she spat.
I sighed but walked away without another word. I did not know what to say or how I was going to handle this situation. In the show, the Klingon B'Elanna had died protecting her human counterpart, so this situation was truly caused by my actions. Granted, I had never guessed that Klingons would be related to Dragons, but I still would have made the same decision despite the problems that have sprung up.
Katye was waiting for me as she had said and, thankfully, it was just her alone. I explained what had happened while we walked back onto our ship which made her sigh. There were no easy answers to this situation, so only time could tell how things would play out between me and the Klingon B'Elanna.
A/N: Hey guys and gals, I'm going to be going out of town to see my in-laws for Thanksgiving, so I won't be releasing anything for two weeks. I'll be back to my normal schedule by the Dec. 2 to 3 reset. Hopefully, I'll get some extra chapters done over the break and release a couple of them then. Sorry for the pause and Happy Thanksgiving!
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-- Peringkat
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