The Breen were a reclusive, war-like race and were once enemies of the Federation. All Breen soldiers have been known to wear refrigeration suits, but the reason for them was never made entirely clear. They seemed to enjoy being shrouded in mystery, and will sometimes make up facts to maintain, or even encourage, that mystery. The Breen were powerful as much as they were crazy, which was certainly a most dangerous combination. Seth never would have thought in a thousand years that a Breen soldier would ever join the Federation, let alone be his Chief of Security. Somehow Seth doubted very much that he would ever let him know why he decided to sign up for Starfleet.
Ensign Lo was now beaten and cowering on the ground. Just before the Jem Ha’dar hologram had been able to land a finishing blow from his weapon, the Breen figure blocked it and knocked it away. He quickly turned and landed an elbow blow to the center of the Jem Ha’dar’s chest. He stumbled momentarily, and tried to retaliate, but almost before he could make a move the Breen had swooped in, grabbed and snapped his arm, and then tripped him to the ground. He then finished him with a powerful kick to the face. From the looks of it, if the holograms had been actual people, the ship’s doctor would have a bloody mess on his hands. The captain thought of advice that was given to him as a child by an established admiral: never mess with the Breen.
Seth also noticed that Thorn’s arms were entirely made of metal, including the fingers, as if they were synthetic limbs. It matched the color of his mask. Seth whispered to the ensign, “What’s with the arms?”
She looked back at him flushed, as if embarrassed that the captain had even asked the question. She quickly replied to him. “I wouldn’t ask.”
The Jem’Hadar laid there with blood oozing from his face. Oddly, it took a few seconds for the computer to decide to remove the image, as if waiting for it to suffer before disintegrating it away.
“Ensign Lo over there is training to be a specialized security officer,” explained Ensign Ester. “He needs additional training from Lieutenant Commander Thorn.”
“And those two batons that he was whirling around?”
“New weapons for the Federation security officers. They make great defenses against Klingon bat’leths and other sharp objects. But the added kick is that the ends of the batons are charged to activate the enemy’s pain receptors when struck. So the pain is three times as intense as a normal strike. This means that if you struck it hard at your enemy’s head, it wouldn’t necessarily cause his skull to crack open.”
“The Federation is still only interested in defensive weapons, I guess.”
“That’s right. But if you ask Lieutenant Commander Thorn, he would say that’s a waste of time. Most other races don’t have the same courtesy.” Seth saw Ensign Lo stand up and wipe off the dust off of himself. The batons seemed to go through a series of quick mechanical folds, and appeared to ‘integrate’ back onto his forearms. It now looked like the officers wore long, metallic arm-bracelets. It was an easy way for them to carry around the weapons, while still having defenses on their forearms, Seth guessed.
The Breen figure approached the captain. “$%*$&#*@(#@*$&#^@$” he said, obviously in a language that could not be understood. It just sounded like robotic mumbo-jumbo. To this day, nobody understood why the Breen spoke this way. Maybe they just didn’t have vocal chords.
“I’m sorry, I don’t speak Breen,” the captain said. He didn’t bring his universal translator with him. But it appeared that Ester understood him.
“He’s asking if you’re the captain he’s assigned to serve and protect,” she told him.
“Yeah, that’s me. It’s, um, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I read a lot about you in your files,” he said. Seth lied. On both accounts.
The Breen took a good look at his captain, moving what seemed to be his “eyes” up and down. He seemed to be trying to measure him up. He turned to Ester, “@#$*&#, #($*& @#(*$&#( #(@@(#&$( ##@&^%.”
Ester giggled a little, almost embarrassed by it. “Um, he said, ‘Great, I’ve always wanted a challenging assignment.’”
Seth jerked his head. “What the hell did you mean by that?”
“@(#$(@#($@#$(#(*#&@#$(@#$&*#.”
“He said that he’s not taking orders from, um, you,” Ester translated.
“Look, Lieutenant, if you want a different assignment, then just say so,” fired the captain. “I’d be more than happy to recommend you to another ship.”
“@#*$&@#$(@*#&$)#*.”
“Sir, this isn’t the time for that,” Ensign whispered to Thorn.
Thorn began to turn his back to him and walk away. “Hey! Just wait a minute. I am graduate of Red Squad, do you know what that is?…” Seth yelled, but before he could reach him, three human holograms in security uniforms appeared in between Thorn and the captain. When he tried to move around them, they just blocked him. What was this? He looked at Ester, but she didn’t say a word. She just looked to the ground.
But he understood what she was trying to say. “What is this? He’s testing me?” The ensign didn’t know what to tell him. “I’m getting out of here.”
He proceeded to walk out of the holodeck doors, but soon stopped in his tracks. Seth could easily order Thorn to quit messing around, but he knew that he would not gain Thorn’s respect unless he passed it. He felt like he was at some sort of Klingon right-of-passage ceremony. He knew that the Breen were crazier.
Alright, fine, he thought to himself. He could indulge in this little game for a while. Seth turned around to face his opponents. He quickly lunged at the center hologram, taking him down instantly, and landed a hard punch quickly to his nose. Its nose bled all over the place, its head fell back and hit the ground hard. Wow, even the holographic blood was pretty real. The captain knew that the other two would try to grab him, so after the first one was incapacitated, he made a quick roll to the side and stood guard for an incoming attack. But he was too slow, as soon as he looked up he saw one of the holograms coil back and thrust forward to land a powerful blow to the chest.
The captain instantly fell backward, and for a moment, couldn’t breathe. Shit, these guys are strong. What was this? Level 3? 4? And three of them? He quickly realized something else: the safety features were disabled. This meant that the captain could be seriously hurt or killed by the holograms. The captain rolled away to the side, but this time tried to further distance himself from them. One hologram tried a more arcing punch, which the captain was more easily able to block and land a counter-attack. He grabbed his arm by the wrist with his left hand, turned quickly inside of him, and landed a quick but painful jab to the face. The hologram cowered in pain, blood spewing everywhere. The captain tried to rush and finish him off. But the last of the three came literally out of nowhere and placed his arm right at the captain’s throat while he was running. The captain’s forward momentum caused him to fall right back to the ground.
The captain could barely see, but from what he could tell, one of the holograms was spinning around a stick, or a weapon. Where the hell did he get that? He couldn’t exactly tell, but it didn’t matter, he knew he was in trouble. He could see that the hologram was winding up to hit him. Hard. In the milliseconds that he had to decide, he felt he had no choice but to try and block it. He did, successfully, but it nearly killed his arms. That was stupid, he thought. That was like saying I successfully blocked his punch with my face.
Adrenalin was really starting to run through his arteries now. It was time to take them down. The captain rolled away again, and quickly stood up and stood guard. “Computer! Weapon!” but he couldn’t think of an appropriate weapon to fight him with. A sword? A bat’leth? A gun? “Um, anything!” But the computer did not respond. Wonderful, the captain doesn’t get a weapon either. The hologram spun his weapon into him, landing quick jabs and pokes to various parts of the captain’s body, but none that were crippling. The hologram seemed to be trying to keep his distance. Damn, I need to get inside. The hologram was starting to become more aggressive, and trying to use his weapon to attack his legs and his knees. The captain started to keep his center of gravity lower. He was at least low enough at one point to grab the sand that was on the ground, and throw it in his face. The hologram winced, but it was just enough time for the captain to grab the weapon, and get it away from him. But the hologram quickly had a knife materialize into his hand. Just great, the captain thought. Ensign Ester stood by looking increasingly frightened for her captain.
The hologram made no hesitation, and resumed his attack, this time with a series of stabs and slices. Following the last stab motion made by the hologram, the captain quickly leaped to the outside, grabbed the wrist with his right arm, hit his hand with his knee to force him to drop the knife, and forced him into the ground by pushing onto his shoulder with his hand and locking his elbow. The hologram dematerialized in defeat. That’s two.
Now, the last one. This hologram appeared to have a weapon, too. He actually had two, but they were smaller than the staff the previous hologram had. They were the new Starfleet batons. “@#$@^, @*##$^#^,” Thorn said. The captain couldn’t understand what he said, but he could tell instantly when he saw the hologram whirl his weapons with added skill. Thorn had increased the difficulty level.
Okay, the captain thought. How was he going to handle this one? The captain knew he needed more finesse this time. He held the staff firmly at the proper places, and began striking blows at the hologram. Not surprisingly, the hologram blocked each one of his attacks with his batons, and he was successfully able to land counter-attacks to the captain’s midsection and back. One of those blows, he couldn’t remember which, caused him to collapse onto the ground. Seth bled in his mouth. He was beginning to have enough of this.
Seth started to realize that something else was wrong. He couldn’t move his left arm. He looked over to see that his arm had come out of its socket. He must not have noticed it from the fall because of all the adrenalin. But now it was really beginning to hurt.
“Oh my God, are you all right?” asked Ensign Ester, realizing that this had gone far enough.
“I’m fine…”
“Let me help you…”
“I said, I’m fine.”
“Computer: re-engage the safety protocols,” she yelled. “We should get you to sickbay.”
“I’ll go myself,” he ordered.
Lieutenant Commander Thorn just stared at him. Seth could have sworn that he saw Thorn shake his head. And then he walked out of the holodeck.
