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.Snow Kitty	By : keithcompany Category: Star Trek > Star Trek Views: 1207 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, settings or props of the Star Trek universe. I make no profit from this fanfic.

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Thelira thundered down the beach. There was no point in hiding, Kitty had to know she was coming. Kitty had challenged her to chase.
Just before she caught up to the little furry creature, it took off running, but back the way Thelira had come. She'd never seen anything outside of the android labs accelerate that way.
She dug her heels into the sand to stop and ran after. Her target was faster on a step-for-step basis, but the Andorian's steps were four times as large. She caught up slowly.
The alien warrior started to meander back and forth over the beach. Thelira judged that she was still mostly following a steady course despite the jinks. She held a steady bearing and drew closer.
Kitty spared one glance back and stopped her serpentine efforts to confuse pursuit. She headed straight for the filter assembly.
"Oh, yeah," Thelira muttered. "Head for my terrain. That'll help."
The fleeing prey was just about to leap up onto the catwalk when a screaming sound drew both their attention.
Kitty glanced to the side, then back at Thelira. The Starfleet officer saw a stricken expression. Kitty couldn't be sure Thelira was just playing, couldn't afford to investigate the sound while she was being chased.
Once again, the Andorian dug in her bare heels and stopped. Her antennae were already tracking the sound, her eyes turned to follow.
Three of the snow- kitties were crouching in the undergrowth of a bush. Sticks torn from branches were used to fend off some sort of animals.
That was a pack something between lizard and mammal, low to the ground and showing a lot of teeth. Six or seven of them surrounded the trapped threesome. They had scales that were even harder to see than the fur of the snow-kitties.
At the moment they were being held at bay, but they kept pressing forward. Thelira glanced to the side. Kitty was poised at the bottom of the catwalk, glancing between her and the direction of the attack.
Thelira deliberately held the training marker out, then dropped it to the sand. "GO!" she shouted.
Kitty went.
Thelira loped after her. She was torn. It wasn't really legal to interfere if they were intelligent, protected by the Prime Directive. But they probably wouldn't have been caught if she hadn't been playing around with them in the first place.
She'd take her knocks if she had to. She may or may not be able to remain a Starfleet Officer if she helped. But she couldn't live with herself if she didn't.
Mindful of possible ramifications, she didn't want to use any weapon that the snow-kitties didn't already recognize. As she approached the pack, she ripped off a branch. Or tried to. The entire bush came out of the ground in her grip.
She shrugged and continued.
Kitty and a few others picked pebbles and rocks off of the ground and threw them. Some of the predators snapped their teeth and waved long, curving tails in the direction of the throwers. But they only paused in getting closer to the trapped victims.
Thelira threw the entire bush in the direction of the conflict. It landed harmlessly on one, but at least otivated it to run away. It took off in the direction of upriver.
Most of the others followed it. One, though, must have been more desperately hungry, or saw a good opportunity. It surged forward, attacking the smallest snow-kitty in the trap.
It screamed, a high-pitched wail of terror. Thelira ran forward. Kitty burst into the attacker's path, pounding on the skull with a rock.
It hissed, twisted and bit her on the arm.
"NO!" Thelira screamed. She swung her leg and punted the beast up into the air. There were several cracks, of ribs or spine. It spun a few times and slammed to the ground.
Snow-kitties boiled out of the bushes and swarmed the wounded animal. In seconds it was dead.
Thelira looked down. Kitty was staring at her arm.   Something black, saliva or venom, stained the fur and dripped down the limb. She glanced up at the giant woman beside her, gave a small smile and tipped over to fall onto her back. The tiny eyes were flat and sightless as they stared up at the sky.
The Andorian didn't hesitate. Even if Admiral Cartwright himself had been there, telling her she'd be keelhauled for interference, she'd have still picked up the little figure.
She ran back to her living quarters and down to the small infirmary. The autodoc scanned the being located in its exam area and identified a neurotoxin.
It was apparently paralyzing the victim's respiratory system. The automated voice suggested that artificial breathing could be initiated, did she want to authorize that?
"No," she muttered as she hit the authorization key. "I use the medical scanner because I want to watch her die."
The medical scanner pulsed as it examined the patient and made further suggestions.
Thelira had to wonder if any Vulcans were involved in programming the thing.   It always asked the operator if it should do things to save or improve the patient's life. Starfleet was adamant about operators remaining in control of their machines.
But the most important lesson they stressed in First Aid was to obey the medical scanner implicitly unless you had a medical degree.
Then she realized she was obsessing about the software because she didn't want to think about the patient. Or ask about the patient's odds of survival.
Xenobiology was largely hit and miss guesswork. Xenotriage and xenotherapy were crapshoots a Nausican casino slave would find daunting.
So Thelira sat impatiently while the machine pumped air in the lungs, massaged the heart, cleaned the wound and flushed a general antivenin through the blood supply.
Nothing much changed in the patient. She didn't moan, blink or kick. The readings on her profile rose from red to yellow and headed into the greens, though, so Thelira took heart.
Then the perimeter alarms went off. She briefly imagined hordes of the lizard stalkers swarming the station. But scanners showed only that one of the snow-kitties had run up to the front door and run away.
Cameras that could see the door showed that something had been left there. Thelira threw on her uniform and cautiously opened the door.
A small basket made of woven plant stems rested on the step. It held a couple of flower blossoms, a sharp rock, a piece of raw meat, probably from the freshly killed lizard-stalker, and a leaf smeared with what seemed like blood. It just didn't smell like the lizard meat to Thelira.
With a quick glance around, she lifted the basket so any watcher might see it. "These had better be GET WELL gifts," she shouted, "not funerary leavings!"
The door cycled behind her as she returned inside.
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The patient was unchanged. She placed the basket near Kitty's head. Just in case there was any superstition connected to it, she told herself. Maybe it could have a placebo effect. Kitty might smell the blood and wake up, or it might encourage some healing process.
Her antennae dipped slowly, an unconscious good luck gesture she invoked while rationalizing the primitive attachment to superstition and talismans.
After a long wait, she accessed the facility's main computer. "Computer? Scan the current autodoc patient for intelligence."
"Classic traits of known intelligent species are not detected in the patient."
"Hmmm. Computer, review the scans of my recent interaction with the snow-kitties. Does their behavior reflect intelligence?"
"Attempts to interact with the Starfleet officer running naked across the tundra may be correlated to intelligence."
Thelira blushed, her body shifting to a deep cobalt. "Computer, if the behavior indicates intelligence, but scans counter-indicate intellect, are the creatures intelligent or not?"
"Intelligence is indicated by behavior," the monotone droned. "A man in a coma has the potential for intellect, though his brain is deader than a warp drive with no antimatter."
"That's what I thought," she muttered. "Is it possible that other forms of intelligence, other physical bases for intelligence exist?"
"How in the Thaw should I know?" the artificial voice replied. "I have the entire database of Starfleet Medical and the Vulcan Science Academy, and all I can say is that no one's ever seen smart brains that tiny except in colony creatures.
"Besides, the questions you should be asking are legal ones about how hot the penal colony you end up in is going to be on a summer day during your sentence."
"I'm not going to a penal colony! Am I? They're not listed as intelligent beings."
"Not yet," the computer said. "But once they are, you're guilty of interference AND kidnapping. And murder."
"Murder?"
"You're going away for a long time, sister."
Hobnailed boots crashed in the passageway outside as They came to Lock Her Up. She rose from her chair to run and Hide. But first she reached for her patient.
Kitty sat on the pad, the black ichors of her wound dripping from every orifice.
"You killed me!" she intoned, pointing a skeletal hand at the Andorian.
"NO!" Thelira protested. "I tried to save you!"
"YOU KILLED ME!" Kitty insisted.
Thelira turned and bolted from the room and the accusing finger.
Then she fell out of her chair. The dream faded as she landed on hands and knees, staring at the tiles.
"I hate sleeping in sickbay," she muttered. Something about the sounds or smell of the autodoc always gave her nightmares.
She rose to her knees and then stood. She glanced down at the autodoc.
Kitty sat upright against the back rail of the exam table, rubbing her arm and looking curiously at her rescuer.
"Computer, engage universal translator."
"Universal translator is already running as previously commanded."
Thelira's antennae curled in response. She must have ordered that while she was falling asleep.
Kitty was looking around, trying to find the source of the second voice. Well, if the translator was running....
"Don't worry about the voice. It's...a friend of mine."
The little eyes tracked Thelira's face as long as she was talking, then turned to scan the room again.
"Hey, do you understand me?" The lieutenant sat down and scooted closer to the table. Kitty didn't seem apprehensive, but she didn't look away. "Can you say something? Are you hungry? Thirsty?" There was no response.
She started to wonder how much of her dream had been real. Was the brain structure of the snow-kitties so different that the translator couldn't work?
"But...the thrice-thawed thing works with intelligent clouds!" She shook her head, then noticed the basket. "Well, maybe this will help you feel better." She slid the container over by Kitty's feet.
Sharp ears flicked upright as the being bent over the basket and examined it. She grabbed the hunk of flesh and started to gnaw on it. "Thanks," she said.
"You're welcome," Thelira replied. She stood. With the patient was taken care of, she finally noticed that she had worked up an appetite.
And there was a hot-pack of Mars Colony chili with her name on it in the galley. Maybe with a full stomach she could figure out the translator problem.
She raised the security shields around the autodoc so the patient wouldn't wander off and headed down the hall.
Twenty minutes later, she returned, sipping from the last of her iced water.   Kitty stared at her as she sat.
"You spoke," she said, trying not to sound like she was accusing her guest of something.
"You were nice to me," Kitty replied in a soft voice. She was curled in a corner, holding the bag, one hand inside it. If she wasn't gripping the sharp rock, Thelira would eat the whole basket.
"Computer? Did you notice the voice of the patient?"
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.Snow Kitty