A power vortex. A center of energy, a nexus of latent force...life and light to creatures of elemental evil. Here they could feed...and they could do damage to the lords of the Federation, and their shiny silver star-boat as well...the dream-boat was part of Lord Set's mythos, his nemesis. In the shadows, the dream-boat sailed toward dawn, and Set commanded the forces of Apep against it...the same Apep that he had slain and raised under his command so long ago...

On Earth, or Qo'noS, or Bajor, or perhaps Bynaus, the myth took different meanings...different forms. But here it came into being under the Setian current, the aegis of the Adversary himself....he fought to eliminate Order as Telaris knew it, and any myth he could create would serve his goal. If the dream-boat bore the insignia of the Northern Star, then so be it. His children, the beasts and demons whom he ruled like a master craftsman holding a tool, or a Mage holding a wand, would fight to destroy it...

Stardate 09121.9 - 1642 Ship's Time
The Aeon of Set - Day 55

The quiet bustle of Main Engineering was interrupted by a blazing flash of blue light - then a green, then a red - all strategically placed around the warp core, computer banks and the large vaulted entryway, and a thunderous rush of air coming from the source of each flash. Strange designs - sigils, as Set knew them - appeared in white fire after the flashes dissipated, and out of them stepped three beasts. One was a hart with a fiery tail - a strange sight, if there was such a thing in orbit of Abraxas...he immediately raised his head and emitted a hoarse rasp, and out of nowhere three explosions devastated three computer consoles, and a thunderhead began to rain both water and lightning upon the remains, making them dangerous for any mortal to touch...Furfur had come, and his wrath was in full swing.

The next sigil appeared outside the doors - a cruel-faced, foul-tempered old man with a long white beard and a mane of white hair nearly as long, riding a white horse with hooves of fire, and carrying what could only be described as a wicked-looking meat cleaver, its blade roughly three feet long, curved like a bat'leth, with similar hollow parts to reduce weight, and arcane runes inscribed on the tip. It glowed with a black flame...this was Furcas, the Demon Knight. None would pass him.

Then, near the warp core itself, appeared the final sigil, glowing with a titanic evil. The engineers currently on duty were transfixed...they were as mere children before its twisted power. A man with gryphon's wings, a short black goatee, and glowing green eyes stepped out from it, expanding into view like a Starfleet vessel coming out of warp. Perhaps a cruel irony, given his mission aboard the Polaris...it was said that Focalor's office was to "His office is to slay men, and to drown them in the waters, and to overthrow ships of war", and given the difference between Abraxan technology and human technology - about 800 years - he was still in his natural element. Uttering silent, barbaric words in a language that seemed to the nameless ants who populated Engineering to be the speech of alien devils - a remarkably perceptive moment for such technologically imprisoned members of an "advanced culture", mused Focalor, chuckling to himself - he directed the power of his titanic Will upon the ship's warp core, and unleashed his strength...there was no containment failure. A demon could feed quite happily on energetic currents without ever breaking the seal that held the energy away from mortals and their puny bodies...and he could gain just as much, and enjoy it more, because he was using his skills to their fullest.

As the power drained from the warp core, Furcas slew crewman after crewman, playing with human life as a child plays with toy soldiers, and Furfur wantonly destroyed one more computer console, then caused a torrent of rain to fill Main Engineering...

One ensign, somehow regaining his wits, tapped his combadge with the last ounce of strength he possessed. There was true terror in his shaking child's voice...=/\=Engineering to security...oh god...there are demons down here! They're killing us all! Send..zzzzzztttttt!=/\= And the sword of the Demon Knight took his head from his body, and his ability to speak with it...Furfur destroyed the dead man's combadge, laughing gleefully at the wet popping sound the chest it was attached to made.

They weren't evil beings by nature...they were bound, by someone who understood their names and sigils and the proper conjurations, and how to bend the shards of Kia to his will...but they were vengeful beings. All elementals are trickster spirits, by nature...unaware of what their actions do to the mortal world. But they were aware of one simple thing. When the right ones came along to set them free of this sick bondage, Set would know their might, and fear it...

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Steel Phoenix