FIC: Dauntless: Forgotten Heroes

[Shadow <Shadowlander1@xxxxxxx>]

Title: Dauntless: Forgotten Heroes (8/?)
Author: Shadowlander1@xxxxxxx
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters commonly associated with
Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Star Trek: The Next Generation; or the X-Men
and their sister team the New Mutants; they belong to others and are
used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Rating: PG
Pairing: still working on that one, I'm afraid. :)
Archive: The usual places all others please ask first.
Summary: New friends are made and the adventure begins. Gods I suck at
writing summaries. :P

DAUNTLESS: FORGOTTEN HEROES (8/?)

"Chief of Emergency Operations... it has such a nice ring to it,"
Lieutenant Commander Willow Rosenberg said from the open hatchway of
Rahne's new office, a big goofy looking grin on her face as she regarded
her friend and roommate.

"Na ya too," Rahne groaned, with a shake of her head, as she looked up
from her desk. "Don ya have something to be checking in tha' engine
room of yours?"

"Rahney... I'm hurt, you actually think I would miss your office warming
party?" Willow cried sounded offended as she stepped further into the
room, "its not everyday my roomy gets promoted to a brand new post."
She said sounding offended, "er, just what exactly is it you do?" She
questioned after a moment.

"I'm not quite sure... all I know is tha' Commander Yar sat me down an'
told me that I could na kill tha' git Finn an' then told me I had a new
job," Rahne said with another shake of her head.

"That sounds like our XO... when in doubt confuse the lower ranks,"
Willow said with a laugh having given up trying to figure out the first
officer's sense of logic shortly after meeting her. Commander Yar
tended to be an enigma, just when you think you understand her, she
changes on you, some new aspect of her personality emerges blowing your
perception of her right out the window.

"Er... excuse me," a new voice said as a petite blonde appeared in the
hatchway, "I'm looking for a Lieutenant Sinclair."

"Aye, ya found her... ya must be Lieutenant Summers," Rahne replied as
the two redheads turned to regard the new comer.

"How did you know?" Buffy Summers questioned a bit hesitantly.

"Process of elimination... I know just about everyone on board," Rahne
replied with a calm smile, not exactly lying to the blonde, she did know
most of the crew and passengers aboard the ship. Mainly through their
scent, but she did know who was and wasn't apart of the vessels
compliment, but she didn't think Summers was ready to learn that little
fact just yet, most people tended to get nervous when they found out
they were talking to a werewolf.

"Okay," Buffy replied, absently wondering how anyone could know well
over a thousand people enough to know if there was a stranger in the
neighbourhood or not. "The Captain said I had to report to you."

"Cool... your first subordinate," Willow crowed happily, "this is so
neat, you have someone to order and growl at... not that you actually
growl at people on a daily bases because you don't you usually go into
the holodeck and beat up defenseless holograms for hours and hours."

"Ya have to forgive our Chief Engineer... she got hit with a sonic
wrench the other day and hasna been the same since," Rahne commented
dryly.

"Ha ha... I'll remember that the next time you destroy your uniform,"
Willow replied playfully swinging at her friend. "I'm Willow by the
way," she said introducing herself to the blonde, "don't listen to a
thing Wolfy here has to say about me... she's known me all my life and
is quite biased in her opinion of me."

"Ah huh," the blonde acknowledged, giving the two a puzzled look. At
first she had mistaken them for siblings, both had red hair and green
eyes, although Rahne wore hers very short and on closer inspection her
eyes had a touch of blue in them as well. About the only difference she
could tell in them were their accents, Lieutenant Sinclair had a thick
Scots blur.

"Hey no tormenting the new guy until after she's been aboard for more
then a week," Lieutenant Miller said coming up behind Buffy, "you must
be the Slayer, I'm Lieutenant Miller Assistant Chief of Security," he
said holding out his hand to her. "I've been looking forward to meeting
you... hoping you'll drop by Security and give us a few pointers in the
slaying department, we always like to get the opinion of a
professional."

"Huh?... Wait, wait... you know I'm the Slayer?" Buffy questioned
panicking a bit.

"Small ship, not many secrets around here," Willow replied gently, "well
there are, mainly the really important ones, like the transponder codes
and the exact contents of Doctor Crusher's favourite hypo but other then
that, we're pretty open about everything."

"Don't let it bother you... in fact by our standards you are pretty
normal," Miller said taking pity on her, "we take great pride on our
diversity we never had an actual Chosen One among the crew... we're
planning a large welcome aboard party for you and everything."

"You're going to throw me a party," Buffy said slowly wondering if
Miller was some escaped patient out of Sickbay's mental ward.

"Well why not? We like being different any ship can be the finest in
the Fleet but how many do you know that have a vampire in charge of
Security, a sorceress in engineering," he went on indicating Willow as
the magic user with a nod of his head, "and an actual werewolf in charge
of Emergency Operations?" he continued with a nod to Rahne.

"You see around here... Graham there is a complete freak of nature,
being all boring one hundred percent human," Willow added helpfully.

"I love you too," Graham replied dryly, "you see what I have to put up
with around here?"

"Okay," Buffy said shaking her head dismissively, then something
occurred to her, "you guys are okay with a vampire being in charge of
Security?"

"Why not? He gave his word not to snack on any of the crew and
Commander Blood would sooner take a bath in holy water then break his
word."

"Don tell anyone but his conscience won let him," Rahne said sitting
back in her chair and studying the Slayer. 'Well hello? What is this?'
she asked herself picking up something on the blonde she usually only
associated with Commander Yar only a bit stronger coming from Buffy.

"A vampire with a conscience, yeah right." Buffy replied with a laugh
sure the three were putting her on now.

"Really he does... he hates admitting it but he does have one," Willow
said, "we're not saying that all vampires have a conscience.., because a
lot of them don't especially the really young ones."

"It has a lot to do when they are turned, the Commander was turned when
honour still played a large part in society," Miller continued, "it's
like the memories... the demon shares all of its host's memories... well
it also tends to share in its emotions and conscious they bleed right on
over as much as a vampire hates to admit it. Commander Blood happens to
respect our Captain he would sooner stake himself then disgrace that
respect."

"Now th' young ones they tend to have na such quarks in their psyche...
they are more inta blood and mindless violence... those vamps we stake,"
Rahne said.

"So the Security Chief has a soul," Buffy said making sure she
understood properly.

"No... he has a conscience... he's still one soulless bastard of a
vampire but he's an honest one." Miller corrected, "look... once you're
been here for a awhile you're start to notice a few things, one is that
the Security Chief is one strange as hell demon and he likes being that
way. Two we tend to be stubborn, possessive, and very territorial about
who and what we consider ours... especially Rahne over there she is the
absolute worse about it."

"I am not possessive or territorial," Rahne cried in outrage.

"You'll note she is not denying the stubborn part," Miller said in a
conspiring whisper to the Slayer, a wide grin on his face.

A low growl brought Buffy's attention back to Rahne who was giving the
male a dark look, "And you're a werewolf... don't you have a little
problem with the whole moon thing?" She asked remembering her few
encounters with werewolves in the past that usually involved a lot of
growling and drooling.

"Why does everyone keep askin me tha'?" Rahne questioned to no one in
particular looking mildly offended. "Na the moon doesna cause me to
'wolf out' an' try to rip people apart... I am na cursed, silver only
ends up annoying me an' na ta mention puts me ina very bad mood. The
only time I've ever instinctively shape shifted was when I've been
scared... but a lot of mutants tend ta have the same reflexive action...
ya probably do the same thing when sufficiently startled." She
explained with a calm smile, wondering if she was ever going to live
down thousands of years of persecution, you say werewolf and people
automatically think she is some snarling mindless creature come to eat
them.

"Ah... yeah," Buffy replied sheepishly, recalling the time she
accidentally put her fist through a metal wall just after she was
'called' and was still getting used to the sudden change in her
strength. That was one of the toughest things she had to get used to,
not knowing her own strength any more.

"The only time the moon has ever effected me is when we have been in
orbit around a planet for a prolong period of time and I've become
acclimated to its lunar pull." Sinclair added with her own sheepish
grin.

"Its not the fullness of the moon that causes problems for her... it's
how strong the lunar pull is, it tends to throw off Rahne's control,"
Miller added, "she doesn't go wild or anything, it just makes her
moodier then usual and more prone to lose her temper."

"Ah but what happens if we're in orbit around a moon?" Buffy asked with
a wicked grin, deciding to just go with it and see what happens, her
little inner Slayer voice saying that she was going to feel right at
home.

"You know... I think you're going to fit right in around here," Willow
replied with a grin, liking her new friend already, as Rahne and Miller
laughed.

After the laughter died down, "Look I got to run, due in a meeting in
twenty minutes... once you get settled in, swing by Security and we'll
get you fitted for a stiletto," Miller said, casting a glance at the
office wall clock.

"Stiletto?"

"Yeah... a little invention most of Security carries," he added, holding
up one arm and extending the eleven inch razor sharp blade from the its
hiding place under his uniform sleeve, "prefect for staking a bothersome
vamp while on away team missions and is also useful against other
possible threats." He said with a wicked grin, "it's made of Klingon
iron wood damn near indestructible and very deadly."

"All the properties of wood for dusting of the undead, but still
versatile enough to be used as a knife in hand to hand combat," Willow
continued, "a lot of the crew carry them, using them as a back up incase
they lose their phaser and such."

"And the vampire... Commander Blood approves of this?" Buffy questioned
studying the blade and it's housing as Miller shoved up his sleeve to
give her a better look at the stiletto.

"Approves? Bloody hell... the man helped design it," Rahne said with a
laugh. "Ta him... we're his kids the whole bloody lot of us... and if
ya think I'm possessive ya should see him when it comes ta those he
considers his."

"Vampires can be very possessive... dangerously at times," Buffy noted
filing away the information automatically.

"Aye we know... an' in other situations he would be tryin to turn the
lot of us, if it wasna for the Captain," Rahne acknowledged with a
slight grin.

"He even thinks of turning one of us without our consent and the Captain
would happily beam him into the nearest sun," Miller replied with a
wicked grin of his own.

"Hey, if you wanted to serve on a sane ship... you should have gotten
transferred to the Enterprise," Willow suggested helpfully with a wide
grin.

End Part 8.

The butchering of Rahne's accent was brought to you by me... I'm German
what the hell do I know about a Scots blur? If anyone out there can
help me out in that department your assistance is most helpful. :)


--
Shadow -
Dir. of Pub. Safety of the SECLGA and Chief Dungeon Keeper.
Vampire Teddy Bear and Flying Fox {Fruit Bat} of the Woods Outback. The
Big Bad and Little Comma. Mistress of Mischief... Corrupter of the
Innocent. Torment of Quindolyn. Founding Member of the Get Willow and
Buffy Naked Society. GWBNS - Hey, it's a way of life. Dark Mistress of
Weird... be afraid, be very afraid. Yang to Alex's Yin.