The sun shone down on dry baked earth. The rains had not come for many months. The crops that would have feed the people had withered and died. In this time, many good men had died in the fields. Farmers had turned into warriors, and their farms became their own graves.

A young man made his way across this landscape of the fallen dead. He was dressed in armour of steel. He carried a sword and an axe; neither seemed to do him any good at this time. He walked over body after fallen body, recognizing each one's face. At one time, there was a name to those faces. Now they were gone. The young man was left with knowing that by his command they had died in battle.

It shamed the young man. With just one word he had led them all to die. They were once his family and friends. Now they were nothing more then empty shells, lying on the dried earth waiting for him to come and reclaim them.

Soon they would fight again, but this time they would fight against the young man.

He looked up to the horizon. There were thick black clouds moving in to turn the daylight into pitch black night. And within the coming darkness was the evil that would claim his fallen prize.

The young man picked up his pace. He began to move quickly over the fallen bodies. No longer did he give thought of the names that used to belong to them. He stepped over one body that lay on its back. Unlike the others it was clad in a tattered red and black uniform with a shredded gold sash.

It was a uniform of an Imperial Officer! The young man stopped. He bent over to get a better look. The arm of the dead man shot out and clutched the young man's arm. The young man tried to twist his arm free, but the corpse held tight. It spoke in a harsh voice. "You can't save them! You can't save them! They're dead! They're all DEAD! You misbegotten freak! Acting like you're human, pretending to prance around! You didn't think we knew it was you at the Academy? We should have put a flea collar on you back then...."

The young man smashed in the face of his former Captain. Captain? Yes, he was once a Captain of a great ship.

Gammara! The ship's name was Gammara. The young man turned to walk away, but he was stopped with a jerk. The Captain's arm was still holding on to him. The hand was withered and grey, and around the flesh were blackened worms.

These worms were what made the hand hold on to him. They ate away at the soul of the body feeding on it. As they fed off of the body they were able to control it. From the hand came two worms which were trying to feed off of him.

Taking the axe in his free hand, the young man hacked at the worm-infested arm. He hit at it with his full force untill it gave way. The broken pieces of worm and arm fell to the ground.

Seeing what he had done, he turned away and ran. He had to run, had to get away from the madness. The young man ran over the dead, each one trying to grab him and pull him down. As he ran, the bodies of the dead formed a pile. With each step he took, the pile grew into a hill. A hill of worms and decaying bodies.

"Why?!" he screamed. The only answer was the howling winds that gathered from the storm.

Standing before him, he saw his sister. She was covered in worms that dug into her fur-covered flesh. Her eyes glowed red with evil intent. She lunged at him. In anger and fear, he swung at her with his sword. She was cut in two and fell back in to the hill.

May the mother forgive him for killing his own sister.

Coward!

The young man turned to look at the top of the hill. Standing there was a man, his flesh rotted and crawling with worms. He had in his right hand lightning and in the other hand thunder. One hundred thousand had died by his hand. His laughter rang out over the ill-fated battleground.

He held out his hand and a bolt of lightning flew towards the young man. The flash of light played over the dark one's face. It was the face of an old rival by the name of Klye Darkenskyes. Darkenskyes keep throwing lightning at him until he fell to the ground. He was standing over him now. "You're a coward. You and your whole family." Just a lot of Cowards." Klye yelled as lighting sparked off the young mans armor. "Now you will join us!"

Looking down he saw the worms crawling into holes in the armour. Their needle-sharp teeth bit into his body.

Lighting from Kyle's hand flashed again. Now standing there was a female with long, pointed ears. She was covered in worms that keep slithering around her. "You will be assimilated, your genetic uniqueness will be add to the collective..."

Looking down again, he saw his dead body on the pile.

As he lay there the worms ate him. He looked down to see that they were not worms but wires and tubes...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

James bolted upright with fear. He thrashed at the covers that tangled around him. They ripped as he pulled them away from him. The image of him as a dead thing had hit home. He waited till the images faded from his mind's eye. It remained before his eyes for long, uncounted minutes.

*Lights*

His mind spoke to the ship's computer - a unique gift that only a few of his people had. To speak to machines with the mind. The room lit with a soft glow. He stumbled out of what was left of his bed. It only took him seconds to cross the small living quarters that were his home. He stepped into the shower. The sonic waves felt good as they splashed over him.

*Computer, Protocol Hide One*

The computer beeped a reply.

All recording devices would be turned off. Slowly Shatterclaw shifted down into his human from. He stretched his arm out and arched his back. His muscles were stiff from restless sleep.

*Computer Shower Protocol Clean Sweep.*

The computer beeped again. Thank the mother, Shatterclaw thought. His special mind power allowed for such little comforts, like going unrecorded as a human when he wanted to. A spray of water hit Shatterclaw in the face. It was colder then he had wanted, but after the dream it was welcome relief to feel the cleansing water flow over his pale skin. After a few minutes he stopped the shower. Stepping out of the shower he caught a glance in the mirror. The reflection in the mirror was that of a youth in his early twenties, with long salt-and-pepper hair. His face was fair and untouched by any marks.

The True Face of the one called James Quentin Nicholas Shatter Of Many Claws.

He shook his head. Tiny water droplets fell to the countertop of the sink. Water was still precious in space, even with the technology the Empire had. Using water in a shower was wasteful. Yet sometimes, it was the only way to feel at home. He would be more careful next time.

He shifted back to his wolf form. Long ago he had joined Starfleet and walked as a human. His first time among them, he learned how dangerous life in Starfleet was. His only way of staying alive was to stay in his huge warrior form. It was also the only way to keep his homeworld safe from the Empire.

*Computer, resume*

He stepped out into view of the recorders. His fur was dry and styled to mach every recording of himself. The computer sub-subprotocols would show anyone who watched that he had just taken a quick sonic shower.

He got dressed. The last think he put on was the Buzz box. It was a form of translation device, used with wolves at first. This one was made specifically for him. In many ways he resented it. But it was helpful to keep up his deception.

The dream still hung at the back of his mind. The crew of the Gammara had died, during their mission to intercept an escaped Romulan spy and bring him back. The Gamarra had been damaged with a warp core breach. No matter what Shatterclaw told Captain Donaldson, he refused to turn the ship in to drydock. A week after leaving Space Station 074 the Gamarra lost containment of her warp field. All hands were lost.

Shatterclaw left his quarters. He was to meet with the other going over to ISS Ghidorah. Most of them had gone to the Academy together, in a manner of speaking. He was early by an hour; it might be good to sit and wait. Anything rather than sitting around thinking about a crazy dream.

"HEY Fuzzy! What the matter when don't you come talk to ME? Don't you like me anymore?"

Without turning around, Shatterclaw could tell who the voice belonged to. Only one member of the crew was so stupid as to anger a larger life from. Commander Jace Crobin, second in command of the Hood. Crobin was a braggart and a showoff; how he had made it in the Empire was beyond Shatterclaw. Reluctantly, Shatterclaw turned to look down at the five-foot-tall human. "What can I do for you, Commander?" his voice box buzzed as the words came out from around his neck. The voice box was the only way he would communicate with other crewmembers.

Crobin walked up to Shatterclaw and began to wave his phaser at him...

"I wanted to give you a gift before you go off on your new posting, fleabag." Crobin said.

From around the corner came eight other crewmembers. Crobin's personal security force.

"This gift would be my death." Shatterclaw raised an eyebrow.

"You are smart for a dumb animal." Crobin replied.

"You are a fool," Shatterclaw snarled, grabbing the front of Crobin's uniform and spinning him around to face the security force. The security force had fired their phasers; most of the shots hit Crobin, who forgot how fast most "dumb" animals could move when feeling trapped. It was a shame to see one die in such a way. Corbin's phaser hit two of his own men.

The other security guards decided to run away. It was a logical thing to do after the murder of their Commander. Logic, on the other hand, was not what made Shatterclaw's people tick. Dropping to all fours, Shatterclaw raced after them.

He came upon the pack of crewmembers within minutes.

The first two were easy to take care of. He rammed them in to the wall by hitting them with his shoulder, knocking the breath out of them. The next had taken off down one of the side corridors. *Computer, force field on Deck Twelve, Section 02 Cross-Hallway Five, Entrapment Protocols Shatterclaw.* This would keep him from getting away...

Shatterclaw would have to go back and get the crewmembers later. A Jeffries tube close down the hall showed where the others might have gone. The tube gave access to all of the ship - if one did not get lost in the tube. As it would so happen, Shatterclaw knew the tubes like the back of his hand.

Shatterclaw crawled into the tube. It was a tight fit for his larger form. His back touched the top of the tube. It would take him too long to move in the tube this way. Shatterclaw cleared his mind. He let the thoughts of the ancient form come to the front of his mind.

Shatterclaw began to change. At first it was only a slight numbness, then he shrank down.

He looked like any other wolf.

Soon he had picked up the smell of fear that came from the cowardly crewmen.

*Computer, lights out in Jeffries tubes 057 though 089. Show failure as random power flux due to corrupted isolinear chips in bank 1288.*

It would take a little more to cover up what happened to the ship, but for now his prey was getting away. Shatterclaw ran down the tube. The scent twisted though the tube many times before the tube opened into a junction up ahead. From this junction was a flickering light. The crewmen may be lost, or setting a trap for him. A horrible smell was coming from the junction.

"I told you, only use dreamberries in the last batch! Now we have TWICE the work to clean up! And we still have a still to pack and sneak into the Ferengi cargo hold! Now get going! We'll never make the demands for this brew...."

Strange talk from would-be assassins? Their smell was all wrong.... stronger. Shatterclaw poked his head through. Three of the most hideous things were working on breaking something down. It was some kind of strange contraption. Shatterclaw returned his attention back to the small, green beings. There were two males and one female. The female he had seen many years earlier at the Academy. When he was human she had tried to kiss him. It was very terrifying at the time. " Oh look, Cregmiyre - a wolf!"

"A what?" One of the males turned to see.

Cregmiyre dropped a piece of whatever he was working on. His face was wide with something unreadable; it could have been fear, yet the smell did not match with fear's sweet tangy scent. Shatterclaw leapt out of one tunnel and into the other, leaving the trolls to do what they were doing.

He picked up the smell of the humans later down the tunnels.

Their fear was a strong musk. The tunnel lead into a dead end, which meant there was a trap. Either Shatterclaw had to trap them or they would soon trap him...

He carefully made his way down the tunnel. Shatterclaw looked over the tube. There was no room to change in it. Any other action would be dangerous. There was no room to turn and no room to fight. What have I stuck my nose into this time?, he thought.

He reached the end of the Jeffries tube. From the room came the sound of phaser fire. He poked his head around the corner. Three of the crewmen were trying to cut thought the bulkhead. A quick mind-speak to the computer, and he knew that a turbolift was on the other side. They were close to cutting though a major conduit. It would slow the ship down as well as letting everyone know that something was wrong.

Shatterclaw began to change. He could feel the bones and muscles begin to take on a form for fighting. He pushed himself thought the opening. He filled all the space in the room. The crew members turned white with fear. One aimed a phaser at Shatterclaw's shoulder. The flesh burst outward causing a gaping wound, bone glistening with blood.

A wet slick of blood poured down onto his uniform.

Now matter how much of a trueborn warrior one was, pain was pain. You could hold out for so long before you had to let others know how much something hurt. This time, pain came out as a endless howl that reverberated down the tunnels, into the halls, and thoughout most of the ship.

The crewmembers took it upon themselves to try and flee though the hole in the wall, which did, in fact, miss the conduit. Shatterclaw looked out and down the hole. Crewmembers were riding down on top of a turbolift. His arm begain to heal the wound. The muscles fused and stretched back over the bone, veins filled with fresh blood and skin formed over the raw flesh. White fur sprung up over fresh, pink skin. It was not a painless process, but it soon ebbed and he felt better.

He turned his mind back to the hole. He could leap down to the top of the 'lift, which would dislodge it and cause it to crash, meaning more healing time. He could not let them get away. Honor demanded their death, as did the Empire - unofficially, of course. A smile spread over his muzzle and sharp fangs shone in the light.

Jenner tryed to recover his breath. The 'lift had come just in time for them to get away from that monster.

Whatever Lt. Shatterclaw was, it was a lie. He was a monster from the oldest stories. Like the thing that lived under your bed when your were five. He had taken a phaser blast to his shoulder!! It didn't even stop him, he just howled as if he didn't even feel it. He looked over at his partner in crime. Tarss was a smartmouth Yeoman, and Kab was a grunt groundpounder, which was little better than Yeoman. They didn't even look up at him. They just sat there holding themselves. Jenner looked at his PADD. The next floor was their stop. He hit a button on the PADD.

The turbolift stopped at the deck. Jenner moved over to the upper hatch and looked down into the 'lift. No one was there. One by one, they left the top of the 'lift. The other two were still white as plastic steel. In fact, Kab didn't seem well. He fell over backwards. That was when Jenner heard the low growling. He turned to face Shatterclaw. SHATTERCLAW!! How did he get here so fast? The last thing Jenner heard was a little voice saying, transporter activated. Then his world went black.

The trio awoke a short time after they had transported. They were in one of the shuttlebays.

"My people test each other in battles of strength," buzzed the voicebox of Shatterclaw, who was standing off in the shadows, his fur shining in the light. "I will give you a choice: death by the Captain's hand for cutting up his ship, or a challenge of wills."

"If we win this challenge?" Jenner asked.

"You live."

"What if we lose?" asked Kab in desperation.

Shatterclawn smiled. The klaxons sounded. The computer called out, "Decompression in ten minutes."

"What do we have to do?!" Kab hastily asked.

"To outlast me in space!!" buzzed Shatterclaw. Jenner paled as the forcefield outside the bay started to shimmer and fade from the opening. Kab seem to pass out at once; Jenner could feel decompression overtaking him. He looked around the bay. There, over in the corner, was a Low-Pressure Environment Garment. If Jenner could reach it in time, he would outlast the nightmare. He ran towards the spacesuit as the forcefield gave way. Everything began to fly out of the shuttlebay door. Kab and Trass were gone. Space had clamed them. Jenner could feel the floor give way out from under him. He, too, would go out into the blackness of space.

Shatterclaw waited for the gas to work on the last three crewmembers. It was a common gas that sickbay always had on stock. Most often it was used in riot control. He had had the computer feed it in to the holodeck toward the end of the program. *Computer, end program.* The shuttlebay gave way to the yellow grid lines of the holodeck. Jenner and his friends would live, in shame by human standards. Shatterclaw sent them mental images of floating in space only to be saved by fellow crewmembers. They would believe that he had gone though with it, and they would fear him and his race for all time.

Killing them would have been easier and saved him much trouble. He looked at Jenner's face as he picked them up and tossed them over his shoulder. It would have been easier, but not right. Jenner had to stand trial for what he did.

He stopped and took Jenner in his massive hands. He placed the thought of telling the Captain of what he did to Corbin. Justice would be served and Honor would be redeemed. Now it was time for some fun. Shatterclaw tossed Jenner and the other over his shoulder, and headed over to Ten-Forward.

Khan sat at a table with another crewmember. They had their arms on the table and were struggling to see who was stronger. Rea knew Khan was toying with the hapless crewmember. Khan saw the twins enter. He quickly slammed the crewman's arm down upon the table, causing the other man to yip in pain. Khan strutted over to Sura, wrapped his arms around her, picked her up, and kissed her.