Author's Note: A friend of mine writes Star Trek fiction with some friends, and after she told me about it, I got this silly character concept stuck in my head. It's just a bit of fluff and an excuse to write an action scene. :) And before anybody says anything, this is Next Generation era, so security wears gold, not red. I don't make the rules, folks, I just bend them into a pretzel!

The Chronicles of Crewman Number Six

By Jenny North

As the transporter beam finished its cycle, Lieutenant Commander Shifflett felt a film of sweat break out across his brow. Certainly the hot wind and arid climate of Partheon III was no help in the matter, but the reason for his perspiration had nothing to do with the ambient temperature. Reflexively he reached down to retrieve his tricorder to begin his scan of the surrounding area but he felt a surge of both relief and apprehension as he felt the weight of the phaser on his belt. It was unusual for the entire away team to be armed, but that was hardly the most unusual thing about this away team.

He flipped the tricorder open and took a calming breath as he tried to focus on the task at hand. The scan took longer than usual and Captain Barrows tilted his head incrementally to Shifflett.

"Readings are inconclusive, sir," Shifflett reported. "It's consistent with what we detected from the ship. Signs of a probable antimatter breach consistent with a warp-capable ship impacting the surface, but the ambient radiation is making it impossible to get a fix. I'm getting indeterminate life signs. It might be survivors."

"Or it might not." The woman who spoke was Commander Xochitl, the First Officer. The wind blew through her fair short-cropped hair that was a sharp contrast to her dark skin. She flashed her dark eyes at Shifflett in an expression of obvious annoyance. "Distance and bearing to life form readings?"

Shifflett checked the tricorder. "Inconclusive. But the crash site is bearing two-seven-zero, right over that ridge."

He pointed where the tricorder readings indicated, right towards the rising column of smoke. Commander Xochitl expressed an annoyed snort at the obviousness of the statement.

Shifflett had been in Starfleet long enough to have had his fill of personality conflicts with superior officers, but seldom had he made a bad impression quite this rapidly. He'd been assigned as Chief Science Officer for the USS Revenant for less than eight hours before the distress call came in. He'd barely had a chance to drop his bag in his quarters before he found himself beaming down into this hot spot.

He cleared his throat. "May I remind the Captain that the Partheon system is currently in dispute. The rebel Klingon faction is—"

"The Captain is well aware of the sociopolitical situation, Mister Shifflett," Commander Xochitl snapped. "Sir...?" she added to the Captain, more deferentially.

Captain Barrows ran his fingers through his long gray hair, a style that was not entirely regulation. "Hell of a good place for an ambush," he observed. Then barely a moment later, he said, "Phasers," as he unholstered his weapon and started towards the crash site.

The other five members of the away team followed suit and kept a loose but wary formation as they moved forward. Shifflett kept his tricorder in his off-hand as he tried to get a better reading on their surroundings, but his eyes darted up to look at the other members of the team.

Just ahead of him were the Captain and First Officer, and if they were as nervous as Shifflett, they gave absolutely no outward indication. Neither did Doctor Silaya, the Revenant's Chief Medical Officer, whose Vulcan reserve was absolutely impossible to crack. Shifflett thought that she probably felt right at home in the hot and arid climate.

The only one who seemed to share Shifflett's apprehension was the young Lieutenant Commander Zook, the Chief Engineer. She'd been quick to volunteer for the away mission in the hopes of containing the antimatter breach before it caused a full-on warp core explosion, but at the moment she had a nervous smile as she made wary eye contact with Shifflett before quickly returning her attention to the nearby ridges. Ridges that could easily be hiding rebel Klingons, Shifflett realized.

The sixth member of the away team was on point in their formation, the security guard. His uniform was in operations division gold and marked him as a Lieutenant, although they'd left in such a hurry that Shifflett didn't even have time to learn the man's name. The man was Human and middle-aged with an athletic physique, in excellent shape for his age, but quite probably older than Captain Barrows himself. He had the bearing of a man who'd seen a lot of action.

Unexpectedly, the security guard paused. He then straightened up and turned around and walked up to the Captain as casually as though he was joining him for a drink in the crewmen's lounge.

Captain Barrows stiffened up almost imperceptibly as the Lieutenant approached him. "How bad is it?" he asked quietly.

The security guard nodded agreeably. "Oh, we're completely surrounded, sir," he said under his breath with a visible chuckle as he maintained a fake smile. "Three just over that ridge and at least another two over by that line of scrubby trees." He pretended to scratch an eyebrow in the direction he was indicating.

Shifflett looked down at his tricorder. "S-sir, I can't confirm or deny—"

Chief Engineer Zook cut him off. "Don't worry about it. He's got kind of a sense for these things."

The security guard gave the Captain a level glance. "I'd recommend we worry about it, sir. Another ten meters and we're in the kill box. Right now they're wondering if they should push their luck." With that, he casually chucked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction in a quick but clear gesture, as though indicating they should continue in that direction. "And for pity’s sake, nobody raise your weapons or look like you're going for your communicators. We're just idiot bleeding heart Starfleet officers, here to help," he added gruffly.

Barrows and Xochitl made eye contact at each other, a silent conference shared by two officers who had clearly seen a lot of action together.

Commander Xochitl was the one who spoke. "There's a line of rocks over to the right that should give us fire cover from the ridge. If we get lucky we may be able to swing around and flank that group."

The Captain nodded. "That just leaves the group to the left."

The security guard nodded. "I got it, Captain."

Barrows raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

Shifflett's eyes cut over to the line of low trees and bushes. They were completely vulnerable from that direction, and there was absolutely no cover.

It was a suicide mission.

"Captain—?" Shifflett began.

Barrows cut him off. "Okay!" he said in a loud and chipper voice as he slapped the security guard on the shoulder in a gesture of over-the-top camaraderie. His pistol was still in his other hand, but he held his arm loose and relaxed, as though he might just as easily have been holding a picnic basket. The security guard turned and started off towards the crash site, and the Captain said under his breath, "Three steps, and we break for cover."

"I'm gettin' too old for this shit," the security guard muttered. But he never paused in his duty for a second.

Shifflett's hand was sweaty as he gripped the handle of the phaser as they followed along.

One...

Two...

"Go!"

Blazing electric death erupted from seemingly all directions in the form of Klingon disruptor fire as Shifflett and the others raced for cover. His Starfleet training served him well, however, and as he ran he took a couple of potshots towards the ridge. His shots weren't accurate enough to hit any of their attackers, but they were close enough to encourage the Klingons to duck behind cover and buy the away team a few precious seconds.

He skidded to a halt behind a row of boulders right next to Zook and Silaya. Behind him, Captain Barrows and Commander Xochitl were already crouched down and returning fire as the Klingon disruptor fire harangued loudly but ineffectually against the rocks they'd hidden behind.

"I counted three on the ridge. You?" Captain Barrows said to his First Officer.

"Three," she agreed as she popped up and fired her phaser again. There was a sound of a scream in the distance.

"Two," she corrected herself.

"Well done."

Positioned where he was, Shifflett wasn't able to return fire without completely breaking cover, so instead he turned to look back the direction from which they'd just run. He could see the lone Starfleet security guard still running heavily towards their attackers on that side. He'd made excellent progress across the open field, and Shifflett could see the body of a Klingon slumped over on the ground, either dead or unconscious. However, fire from two more Klingon disruptors were arcing dangerously close to him.

That's when one of the disruptor blasts hit.

The bolt of energy hit the man square in the left shoulder, vaporizing the man's arm and a good part of his torso. He went down in an almost inhuman shriek of pain.

"Captain!" Shifflett cried.

"Not now, Commander!" Barrows shot back. "Get up here and help me lay down suppressing fire! Xochitl, take the others and get up there and flank them!"

Shifflett had seen officers and crew lost in the line of duty, but few so gruesomely. However, Captain Barrows' forceful and decisive demeanor helped to snap him back into the moment and he swapped places with Xochitl as she broke cover with the others towards the edge of the ridge line.

The sounds of phasers and disruptors filled the area as the enemy blasts splashed dangerously close to where they were hidden. But Shifflett knew they were still vulnerable where they were from the other direction.

"Captain, the other Klingons..." he began as he took another near-miss shot towards the ridge line.

"Don't worry about it," Barrows snapped back. "We need to keep this group focused on us."

Shifflett was about to press the matter when from back in the other direction he heard the distinct and quite unexpected sound of a Federation-issued phaser, a sharp contrast to the sound of the Klingons' disruptors. He stole a quick glance in that direction and saw someone in a Starfleet uniform closing in dangerously close with the Klingons. The officer had bright blue skin and shock white hair. An Andorian? Had the Revenant managed to beam down reinforcements?

"Shifflett!" Barrows barked.

Shifflett turned his attention back and saw that the Klingons on the ridge were now fighting on two fronts as phaser fire from Xochitl and the others blazed through the sky. He focused again on the task at hand and was able to take more measured and deliberate shots now that he wasn't forced to constantly duck for cover.

Then, from the other direction there was another blood-curdling scream. Shifflett's eyes darted over at his Captain, whose attention was still totally focused on the two remaining Klingons on the ridge. He shook it off and continued shooting up that direction when a few moments later there was a savage roar of some beast over in the direction of the other Klingons.

"Mind your duty, Commander," Barrows said calmly.

"Aye, sir," the science officer responded.

Less than a minute later, Shifflett saw as one of the Klingons on the ridge went down with a warrior howl. The final Klingon, distracted, held his position a moment too long, and Shifflett tagged him with a phaser blast and he, too, went down. The area fell quiet, and a moment later, Barrows' communicator chirped.

"That looks like the last of them, Captain," Xochitl reported.

"Understood. Everyone regroup on my position."

With the danger now past, Shifflett turned to look back in the direction of the other Klingons and was startled to see someone in a Starfleet uniform trotting in their direction. He couldn't make out her rank but she was wearing a gold uniform and had long hair and felinoid features with tawny brown fur. The Caitian girl—she appeared to be barely out of her teens—waved over her head in a carefree gesture like she was waving at friends across the quad. She had a bright smile that Shifflett found somewhat unsettling with her long sharp fangs, and as she got closer he could see that her teeth and talons were covered in blood.

And she was missing the left sleeve of her uniform.

She practically skipped up to meet them. "Called it!" she said in a singsong voice.

Captain Barrows regarded the young Caitian impassively. "Report, Lieutenant," he said in a serious tone.

The newcomer straightened up to attention. "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. These new ones are hard to adjust to," she said. "Three Klingons engaged and neutralized. Definitely part of the rebel faction," she reported. "One is still alive, though he'll need medical attention. The others..." She looked down at her blood-soaked claws. "Sorry," she said with a girlish shrug.

Shifflett stared in amazement at the young Caitian woman. "Wait. I don't—"

Just then the rest of the away team arrived, and Barrows instructed Xochitl to contact the ship and alert sick bay that they had a prisoner needing medical attention. Meanwhile, Zook's face lit up when she saw the new addition.

"Hey, this is a good one!"

The Caitian nodded a little, obviously distracted. She reached behind her and Shifflett heard the sound of tearing fabric as one of her claws tore open the backside of her uniform. A second later, a long prehensile tail popped into view.

"Ooh, that's SO much better," she sighed in relief as her tail stretched around. She then sat on the ground and removed her boots, revealing her padded feline feet and claws.

Shifflett looked to the others and then back at the Caitian. "I don't understand...? Are you…? I thought you were Human?"

She affected an impish little grin, which was an expression that the decidedly male Lieutenant who'd beamed down just a few minutes earlier would be seemingly incapable of making. "Yeah, about that..."

Zook playfully touched one of the Lieutenant's fuzzy ears, which twitched away as the tawny-furred security officer shot the Chief Engineer a look of polite annoyance.

"Yeah, about six months ago Lieutenant Calvin here got himself—" She paused and looked at the Caitian. "Herself?" she corrected herself as Calvin shrugged. "Well, anyway, she got caught in this alien dimensional multiplexer. You wouldn't even believe what it did to the ship, I'm still picking out bits of alien technology. Calvin sacrificed himself to save the ship, or so we thought. Now, whenever he's grievously wounded, he turns into someone new. Near as I can figure, he's somehow instinctively copying forms from adjacent phase spaces."

Shiffler blinked in wonder. "So you can't die?"

"Debatable," Doctor Silaya intoned flatly. "Disintegration would likely prove fatal. And I theorize that since his memory engrams somehow transfer to the new host, any significant brain injury would likewise cause permanent death. Similarly—"

"We get it," Calvin said, holding up her hands. "Can we please not talk about all the fun ways I can die?"

Zook sidled up to the Lieutenant. "I dunno, I've kinda liked having a different meat shield I could hide behind every mission."

"Hey, it still hurts, okay?"

"This is absolutely astonishing," Shifflett said as he instinctively pulled out his tricorder and began scanning the Lieutenant.

"Science officers," Calvin said with a sigh. "Well, sir, get your scans in now, because I'm a short-timer. I just got my orders, I'm being transferred."

"Transferred? Where?"

"The USS Hera. No idea why."

Zook reached up and scratched at a spot just behind Calvin's right ear and the feline Lieutenant's shoulders shivered in delight. "You think they'll think it's weird when you show up as a female Caitian?" she teased.

Calvin shot the engineer a look and swatted her hand away in a lighthearted gesture. Then she shrugged. "I dunno. But as the saying goes, we're Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job."