Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1992 21:12:09 EST
From:
Subject: STORY: The Vigilante II
General disclaimers apply
All poetry taken from _The Collected Poems_ of Robert W. Service
with out permission but with great respect.
as always feedback, critique, comments etc welcome
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I have no doubt at all the Devil grins, |
As seas of ink I splatter. | Lawrence E. Nagy
Ye gods, forgive my "literary" sins- | LEN101@psuvm.psu.edu
The other kind don't matter. |
R. W. Service |
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
T H E V I G I L A N T E
II
"The Shakedown"
.....
Have ever you stood where the silences brood,
And vast the Horizons begin,
At the dawn of the day to behold far away
The goal you would strive for and win?
Yet ah! in the night when you gain to the height,
With the vast pool of heaven star-spawned,
Afar and agleam, like a valley of dream,
Still mocks you a land of Beyond.
.....
Robert W. Service
"THE LAND OF BEYOND"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Commander Tarva and Captain Anthony stood in front of the
turbo lift door waiting to enter the bridge. Commander Tarva
spoke into her communicator with Construction while waiting for
the bridge to be pressurized. When life support was established
the turbo lift door opened.
Captain Anthony and Commander Tarva were alone when they
stepped onto the bridge. Only the emergency lights shining down
from hidden recesses illuminated the bridge. The major color
scheme was gray with black accents. There seemed to be more
chairs than expected all tightly wrapped in plastic.
Before they could make it half way around the bridge turbo
lift two opened allowing the construction crew in. They
immediately crawled under the control banks and opened other
panels. Slowly computer screens began to light up and the main
lights came on showing the whole bridge.
Tarva and Captain Anthony without saying a word to each
other began tearing the plastic off the chairs. Each station
had a chair and was well designed for total access. The current
trend in star ship bridges was to have several stations as
standing positions, no chairs available. In the Vigilante this
could cause a problem if they ever actually tried to use the
controlled worm hole effect.
The chairs had high backs with emergency restraints and
belts. The bridge had the standard layout with Captain in the
middle of the Bridge. Pilot and Navigator in front of and to
either side of the Captain. Next to the Captain on the left was
the Security station. On the other side of the Captain was the
First Officer station. The five stations in the middle of the
bridge each had a wrap around counsel. The Captain's chair also
had special controls on the restraint arms. The Captain and
First Officer's consoles were designed mainly for ship wide
communications they could also be quickly reconfigured for all
other bridge functions.
Tarva tried her chair out for size. The cloth seat seemed
to form to fit. The worker laying under her console stood up
and pushed a button on it. The console lit up and Tarva
recognized it as a standard console with emphasis on
communications.
She pushed a button and said "Attention, all bridge crew
please report to the bridge."
As the last of the Bridge shifts showed up the last of the
workers was leaving. More than fifteen people stood on the
front of the bridge in front of the main view screen. Many
appeared to have been gotten out of bed, they were yawning and
didn't have perfectly groomed hair.
Captain Anthony sat in his chair and waited while First
Officer Tarva did a roll call of the crew before him.
Behind him stood Chief Engineer Dolittel and Chief of Security
Norton.
"Sir, all present." Tarva said and took her seat next to
him.
The Captain stood up and said "Welcome to the bridge of the
U.S.S. Vigilante. Until now the only bridge we've had use of
has been the incomplete emergency bridge.
"Your next project will be to start running total
diagnostics on your stations. You will also be responsible for
absolute knowledge of your station. Your next mission will be
to form a working knowledge of all other stations plus an in
depth knowledge of at least one other related station. I want
this bridge busy until we launch. In three days we will begin
running simulations. You have until then to at least start
learning your stations.
"One more thing, Lieutenant Commander Dolittel." Anthony
said and turned to face him.
"Yes, Sir" Dolittel said coming to attention.
"I have decided that because the Vigilante has a high
average command rank, the position of Chief Engineer is should
be held by someone with a grade higher than Lieutenant
Commander." Anthony paused and watched Dolittel squirm a bit
then continued. "As you all may remember, the standing policy
is to maintain rank utill the end of the mission. This leaves
me in an awkward position since I do not wish one of my most
important positions to be occupied by a light commander. I have
two choices either second guess one of my policies or second
guess my First Officer."
He stepped toward Dolittel and said "I'm sorry," he paused
"I cann't second guess my First Officer, congratulations
Commander Dolittel." Captain Anthony finally smiled and shook
Dolittel's hand.
"Thank you, Sir." Dolittel said, for once at a loss for
words.
Captain Anthony turned back toward the crew and checked his
time "It appears to be time for the third shift, the rest are
dismissed."
Short, to the point meetings seemed to be Captain Anthony's
style. The crew would have to get used to being pulled out bed
for meetings and other whims of the Captain.
Tarva was the first after the Captain to congratulate
Commander Dolittel. She then said "I have some more good news
for you. It's time to move." Tarva then reached over to a
nearby computer console and punched up a ships diagram.
"Finally." Dolittel said with a wide smile.
"I have assigned the newly finished section here by
engineering to you and all of your personnel. It will be your
responsibility to assign quarters."
Dolittel looked at the diagram and said "They're all
doubles, surly there is enough room on this ship to give the 200
crew here their own billets."
"Actually there are two singles in the section I have
assigned to you. As for the rest of the available housing we
are expecting more crew to transfer after the first space
trials. In fact, the bunk rooms we have been staying in will be
mostly for their use."
"You mean they finished the rooms we didn't need first, what
were they thinking?"
"They were thinking that it would take almost half the time
to get a fewer number of larger quarters ready. Thus allowing us
to board earlier."
Tarva then smiled and said "Now if you'll excuse me, I have
some packing to do."
Tarva's new quarters were near the middle of the saucer
section near the Captain's. They were small compared to any
officer quarters on the Enterprise. There were two 'rooms'
separated by slight dividers. Tarva wearing her black robe sat
cross legged in the middle of the bed staring at the mirror on a
near by wall. She was not looking at her self but reflecting on
the nightmares that had been plaguing her.
When the explosion on the Eclipse threw her and the Captain
into the escape pod it had ripped her face open. She barely had
the strength to hit the eject mechanism before the final
explosion ripped the Eclipse apart. The Captain's body had
protected her from most of the explosion but left her trapped in
the escape pod with it. She then drifted for several days
before being picked up.
When she was rescued, she was unconscious and stayed that
way for quite sometime. Her face was bandaged and she was
extremely weak when she finally woke.
The realization she was the only survivor still plagued her.
As chief of security, it was her duty to do all she could to
protect the crew of the Eclipse. She knew they were up against
an irresistible force and that the destruction of the Eclipse
was not her fault. The honor however, bred into a Kalonian
warrior haunted her every night. She was being torn apart by
the loss of her ship and the honor of returning the war to the
Borg.
Commander Norton watched First Officer Tarva approach the
entrance to the cargo bay. It had been several hours since the
meeting on the bridge. Tarva had expressed interest in the
shipment of the new pressure suits. Now that he was about to
start putting them together she wished to be present.
First Officer, Commander Sashon Tarva was an interesting
colleague. After his arrival on the Vigilante Commander Tarva
had approached him about his position. She said that she knew
that he was much more qualified for First Officer. The Captain,
however, was under the impression that he had no aspiration for
a higher position and would much prefer Chief of Security. If
the Captain were mistaken, Commander Tarva said that she would
talk to him about correcting the error. Norton had no desire
for any higher command position, his goals were different than
most Star Fleet officers.
"Sir," Commander Norton said when Tarva arrived "My crew has
begun assembling the first pressure suits."
"Very good, Commander." Tarva said "Lets have a look".
When they entered the cargo bay they found it filled with
shipping containers. Several stood open while black uniformed
security and engineering crew pieced together several pressure
suits.
The suits like all other aspects of the ship had an
unfamiliar design. Instead of the standard ribbed design they
had flat almost armor like panels on the chest and back. All
panels were solid instead of flexible ribs. They also had very
pronounced hinged joints.
Commander Tarva had expected the suits to be black to match
the current color scheme of all the other uniforms. These
suits, however, where a dull gray like the hull of the ship.
Tarva walked around one of the suits, looked at Norton and
said "They look like something out of the dark ages."
"They are." came a voice from the cargo bay door.
"Sir." Tarva and Norton said together, it was Captain
Anthony.
"As you said, we needed pressure suits for warriors."
Anthony said as he walked up to them. "The NM-1's are more than
pressure suits, they are suits of armor."
The Captain turned to one of the crew and said "Is one of
these completed?"
The crewman pointed to one of the suits hanging on a
shipping container.
"Have you completed complete systems diagnostics on it?"
"It was the first thing we did before unpacking any of the
other suits, Sir" was the reply.
Anthony than turned to Norton and said "Your phaser
please."
Without hesitation Commander Norton handed the Captain his
phaser. Captain Anthony then made a point of showing everybody
he was setting it to maximum power. This would be enough to
vaporize just about anything smaller than a standard shuttle.
"Stand back" he said and poured an extended beam into the
suit. The suit and container jumped back from the force of the
blast. Heat poured from the suit and the cargo container
buckled from it. All present had to cover their eyes and faces
from it.
The heat subsided quickly but the cargo container continued
to glow. Anthony turned to one of the technicians and said "Run
a new diagnostics on it. I also want to see a copy of its
internal atmospheric record."
"Aye, Sir" said the crewman and pulled out a special NM-1
diagnostics tricorder which had come with the new suits.
After a couple of minutes of running the diagnostics the
crewman said "All systems check out in perfect working order."
The atmospheric report showed that the temperature inside
the suit had risen a total of 10 degrees Celsius during the
phaser blast. It might have been uncomfortable but it wouldn't
have been harmful.
"These suits are made of a similar material as the hull of
The Vigilante." Captain Anthony said giving the phaser back to
Norton. "The material is different than our hull, it has a much
denser cell structure and disperses much more energy as heat.
The reason our hull is not made of it is that it takes ten times
the current hull material to make the suit material. To protect
even more the suits also have built in deflector shields."
Anthony then pointed to the life support pack. "The NM-1
suits also have an extended life support range of up to five
days. They have built in maneuvering jets, they're suppose to
be even better than the space walk packs we use now."
Commander Norton decided to speak up "If these suits are
made of basically the same material as the hull does that mean
that scanners will not penetrate them?"
Captain Anthony smiled and said "So they tell me, anybody
want to find out?"
With very little discussion it was decided that Commander
Norton should be the first to try on the new suit. It took a
while to configure a suit to fit him, but it would have to be
done eventually. After suiting up he walked around and tested
the joints. The suit fit extremely snug on him, but this was to
compensate for vacuum of space.
"This isn't to bad" he said "It's much lighter then the
standard suit." He than began studying the control panels on
one of his lower arms where's the cloaking button?" he said with
a wide grin.
"They weren't able to reduce the circuitry to install in the
suit by shipping time." Anthony replied seriously.
"You mean they were trying to cloak our pressure suits too?
They really were pulling out all of the stops." Tarva said.
"Actually if you want to be precise these pressure suits are
not intended for the large portion of the crew currently on the
Vigilante." Captain Anthony said. "The only ones who will be
issued the NM-1 are command staff and security. The rest will
be issued to the new crew we will be picking up after the space
trials have begun."
He turned back to Commander Norton and said lets check the
standard tricorder readings. The crewman with NM-1 diagnostic
tricorder replaced it with a standard tricorder. After Norton
put on the helmet and lowered the face shield the crewman
started walking around him.
The tricorder made it's usual buzzing and whirling sounds,
after a few minutes he said "The tricorder doesn't even pickup
the suit's energy pack. It does, however, show a smaller solid
object like a rock of indeterminate make up, about a meter
high."
Almost a meter was cut off Norton's height. All present
were extremely impressed.
As Commander Norton was getting out of his pressure suit
Commander Dolittel and Doctor Cembera hailed Captain Anthony.
They announced that the ship's cloaking was available for
testing. Captain Anthony agreed, he thought it was also a good
time to run scanner tests on the Vigilante.
"Commander Tarva, have the scanner prepared Drop Ship
readied for a mission in two hours." Captain Anthony said.
The Drop Ship swung around to face the Vigilante in its
space dock. Ensign O'Malley had become the resident D S pilot.
She still insisted she was a Star Ship navigator, not a Drop
Ship pilot. Nevertheless, here she sat with Captain Anthony
sitting in the co-pilot's seat the First Officer standing behind
him and the Chief of security standing behind her. It was
enough to make even the most experienced Drop Ship pilot(if
there was one) nervous.
Captain Anthony was busily working the scanners that had
been installed for this exercise. He looked up and smiled, "I
read this side of the space dock structure without problem" he
reported. "I can count every soul in Construction offices and
housing. The structure on the far side of the ship appears to
be fuzzy. From the scanners I would say that a small tug size
vessel may be in dock. I, however, do not read any life forms
on the vessel."
Commander Tarva smiled and said "A standard tug is less than
a quarter the mass of the Vigilante and only has two warp
engines. Currently there are over two hundred crew and
construction personnel on the Vigilante."
Tarva then pulled her oversized communicator out of one of
her pockets and said "Engage cloaking."
"Acknowledged" came back Dolittel's voice.
The Vigilante shimmered a bit and disappeared. The girders
on the far side of the ship became visible. The only odd part
were the few supports connecting the Vigilante with space dock,
they seemed to be cut off at mid point.
Captain Anthony spoke up with an update from the scanners
"Scanners now show no presence of the Vigilante and clearly
define the whole space dock. This is going to be a very
interesting mission."
The dull gray Vigilante hung in the black girders of it's
space dock backed by the turbulent orange of TE-4. On one of
the girders stood a lone figure in a gray pressure suit similar
in color to the ship. All four warp engines glowed blue from
testing.
Captain Anthony hadn't had time to look at his ship since
the crew boarded. It was now two months later and this may be
the last time he would see the Vigilante from the outside. They
were scheduled to begin space trials today. After leaving space
dock they would not return to the Tau-Epsilon system, any
problems that came up they were required to fix on their own.
Because of this policy, all systems were being meticulously
checked before the trials began.
"Preparing to release supports." came a voice from
Construction Control.
"Acknowledged" Anthony said as he stepped off the girder and
fired his maneuvering controls "Vigilante, engage stabilizer
engines."
"Aye, Aye, Sir." replied Commander Tarva.
As Anthony came down over the top starboard warp drive he
could see the relatively small stabilizer rockets begin firing
while the supports from space dock were released. The
stabilizer rockets were computer controlled to keep the
Vigilante in a relatively fixed position. In this case the
fixed position was in relation to the space dock.
"Commander Dolittel, what is our earliest estimated time of
departure" Anthony said to his suit's communicator when he
entered the air lock.
"I can have us ready for departure in six hours" said
Dolittel almost immediately.
"You have two" said Anthony with a smile.
"I think we may be able to pull that off." was Dolittel's
smart reply.
Captain Anthony knew that John Dolittel seemed to always
tripled his actual estimates. Dolittel had said he started it
when he was in the Academy just to give himself room for error.
He than found that it made himself and his team look good when
they came in under their estimated times. Now he just did it
out of habit, it had just become expected of him.
Captain Anthony sat in his place on the bridge in front of
him to his right sat the red headed Ensign O'Malley who was
Picard's contribution to his crew. Picard had made a good
choice in this one, she not only was a highly qualified
navigator but had proven herself a fine Drop Ship pilot. She
also had something in common with many of her fellow crew, she
had a personal interest in the Borg.
Ensign O'Malley's father, Doctor Peter O'Malley was killed
when the Borg destroyed his ship. With eleven thousand
personnel killed and nearly forty star ships destroyed the one
encounter with a Borg ship touched all members of Star Fleet
personally one way or another.
Captain Anthony reflected on how many of his crew came to be
on the Vigilante because of that one battle with the Borg.
Commander Tarva was the lone survivor of the Eclipse, Ensign
O'Malley lost her only family, and many others qualified for the
no family, no attachments, provisions of the mission for the
same reason.
As he sat waiting for the launching of the United Star Ship
Vigilante Captain Anthony felt extreme satisfaction. He too met
all requirements of the mission thanks to the one battle with
the Borg and Locutus. His last command the USS Nielsen was
destroyed in the battle. He had been on Star Base A-6
recovering from a sever bout of Anturi Flu. The medical
facilities on the Nielsen had not been adequate for his
recovery. The Nielsen had just docked at Star Base and
transferred him to it's infirmary when the call came. The
Nielsen was to join the armada in a last ditch stand against the
Borg.
Captain Anthony was unconscious the whole time until the
Nielsen was destroyed. When all life on the Nielsen ended
Anthony woke up screaming. They told him he screamed for an
hour after waking. The reports of the defeat at Wolf-359 had
not yet reached Star Base A-6. In fact, Anthony was not aware
he wasn't on the Nielsen. The news of the destruction of the
Nielsen dropped him into a shock induced comma. With the death
of the Nielsen his life ended too. His wife, lover, best friend
was also his First Officer. She was in command in his absence,
she would have faced the Borg in his place. She had died
without him by her side as they had always promised each other.
After waking from the comma his hair started to come in gray.
Now just a few years later his jet black hair was almost all
gray.
After the destruction of the Nielsen, Captain Robert Anthony
lost all desire to have anything to do with Star Fleet. He
moved to the pioneer planet, Infiniti West and settled down to a
life of isolation.
Infiniti West was a colony planet with an environment
similar to earth. During the early days of colonization,
Infiniti West was settled by a group that spurned all
technology. Their goal was to establish a colony based on the
pioneer life style of 18th century North America. Infiniti
West's varied climates made it ideal for adventurers. From
seemingly endless tracks of ancient forests to expansive hostile
deserts to mountain ranges that made anything on Earth look
puny. Infiniti West had something for everyone.
There was a small Star Fleet station in orbit and some
inconspicuous forts, that helped control visitors to the planet.
Their main function was as base stations for scientists studying
Infiniti West's immense ecology.
Robert Anthony lived in a small stone dwelling he found in
the high mountain region of the main continent. The cabin was
just below the mountain's tree line. In the foot hills was a
small trading post catering to the local trappers and home
stedders. For over a year he lived alone seeing only an
occasional trapper.
His solitude ended when he came back from a hunting trip to
find two Star Fleet officers examining his cabin. One was a
taller bearded man but the other gave away who they were, the
gold skinned android Data was the signature of the Enterprise.
"Captain Robert Anthony?" said the android.
Anthony dropped the carcass of a six legged furry animal
onto a stone table in his yard. Then jumped down from his
horse. The horse whinnied and backed a few steps from Data.
Horses had been scattered through out the stars from Earth and
they still seemed to know when something wasn't natural.
"Captain is a Star Fleet title" Anthony said as he began to
walk the horse to it's carrel. "and Robert is what my wife
called me."
"I'm William T. Riker First Officer of the U.S.S.
Enterprise" said the bearded man "This is Mr Data".
Anthony put the horse in it's carrel and began removing the
saddle. He turned to the two officers and said curtly "What do
you want with me?"
Mr Data began relating their story, it turned out they had
been searching Infiniti West for several months. A team had
finally been able to locate him when they found the small
trading post and heard of a loner in the mountains every one
called, Star Fleet.
Thus began the drawn out negotiations as they tried to
convince him to return to Star Fleet. The Enterprise had
already spent two months in orbit around Infiniti West with many
teams looking for him. They now seemed quite intent on not
leaving until he agreed to come with them. After more than two
weeks he rode his horse to the trading post, where he gave his
few possessions to the only person he thought of as a friend,
the merchant he did most of his business with.
Riker, dressed in the local style outfit he had worn during
the search met him at the trading post. Together they beamed up
to the Enterprise and Robert Anthony rejoined the elite rank of
Star Fleet Captains.
"Captain, this is engineering, we're ready any time you
are." It was Dolittel in his usual informal manner.
"Construction Control," Captain Anthony said "the USS
Vigilante is ready to leave the nest."
"It's been a wonderful experience" came Doctor Cembera's
voice in reply.
Doctor Cembera stood in Construction Control. She watched
as the Vigilante slowly moved out from under her. It had a
preset course of test maneuvers to run while leaving the system.
They had to make sure all the bolts were tight before trying the
warp drives. Once they were out of the Tau-Epsilon system
though, they would never return. Doctor Cembera had a tear in
her eye as if watching an only child go off to war.
"Doctor" came a voice from beside her.
"Yes"
"Memory Alpha reports they are ready to begin shipping the
hulks you requested."
Doctor Cembera continued to watch the Vigilante slide
silently away then said "Tell them to proceed."
The trip out of the Tau Epsilon system was an anti-climax.
After so many hours of work few even knew they had even gotten
under way. The ship performed flawlessly during the maneuvers
through the system.
Before entering warp Captain Anthony ordered the cloaking
engaged. It was standard operating procedure that the Vigilante
run cloaked. It would not do for anybody to get a look at her
while she remained 'Top Secret'. The trip through the Tau
Epsilon system would be the only time they would run uncloaked
while the cloaking was functional. For the cloaking to function
the deflector shields only needed to be at 10% power.
"Set course to Predetermined Test Coordinates three" Anthony
said.
"Aye" Ensign O'Malley said while entering the course.
"Warp one, engage"
"Warp one engaged" said the middle aged human sitting in the
Helmsman's seat.
"Engineering, how are we doing?"
"I thought we were going to test this thing." said Dolittel
"Not just push her about."
"Warp five, engage" Anthony said.
"Warp five engaged" returned the Helmsman.
There was no obvious difference between sitting in space
dock and traveling at warp five except the view screen no longer
showed TE-4 below them but the standard 'rushing stars' opticle
illusion of warp.
The Vigilante spent the next week testing the engines for
extended periods of time below warp 9.6. Finally Captain
Anthony decided it was time to test the Vigilante's acceleration
to warp 9.6 from sub warp.
"Sir, all hands report ready for acceleration test."
Commander Tarva reported.
Once again Captain Anthony didn't expect to notice anything
special when they jumped to high warp. He couldn't help but
wonder if they might sense something.
"Sir, test coordinates set for warp 9.6 acceleration test."
Ensign O'Malley said.
"Warp 9.6, engage" Captain said.
"Warp 9.6 engaged." replied the helmsman than immediately
reported "Current velocity, warp 9.6"
Anthony thought he felt a slight acceleration but nothing
substantial. They achieved warp 9.6 almost instantly and the
Vigilante didn't seem to be effected in any way.
"Engineering, hold current velocity and begin complete
diagnostic tests, on engines, all systems and ship's
structures." Captain Anthony said then headed to his ready room.
When he got into his ready room he began preparing a
sub-space transmission to a small colony world near the Romulan
Neutral Zone.
"Captain Anthony, Sir" came Dolittel's voice over the
intercom.
"Anthony here"
"All tests complete, the Vigilante has held warp 9.6 for
seven hours with no adverse effects."
"Very good, prepare to come out of warp."
Captain Anthony walked back onto the bridge, his crew was
busy running continuous high warp test. "Helm, bring us out of
warp."
"Aye, Sir".
"Ensign O'Malley, Plot the best possible course to the
Romulan Neutral Zone, sector 5876.34."
Ensign O'Malley pushed a few buttons on her panel. Then said
"Course plotted ,Sir."
"At warp 9.6 what would be the estimated time of travel?"
Ensign O'Malley pushed a few more buttons and said "Two
weeks, three days two hours, eighteen minutes.."
"Very good," Captain Anthony said and took his seat. "Set
new course as plotted, warp nine, engage."
"Ensign O'Malley on present course what would be the
estimated time of arrival using controlled worm hole effect?"
Ensign O'Malley turned to a second console that appeared
tacked on to her normal console. After pushing several buttons,
looking at the display and repeating she said "If we are able to
cancel the Worm hole after exactly two minutes 43 point 7676543
seconds we should emerge in sector 5876.34." Anthony
thought a second and said "How long is that figure good for?"
"Sir, taking into account our current speed and the size of
sector 5876.43, about 6 minutes. After that the fractional
seconds would begin making a significant difference."
"Recalculate the timing for fifteen minutes from now and
feed it to my station." Anthony had configured his console to
control the worm-hole effect along with helm and navigation.
He then pushed the worm hole warning alarm. A loud claxon
began blaring from the ship wide intercom. Another button shut
the claxon off on the bridge. The view screen began showing a
count down to the controlled worm hole. The bridge crew began
strapping themselves into their seats for the first time. While
all over the bridge on duty and off duty personnel took their
own seats. Many crew had been woke out of comfortable beds not
knowing what was going on.
The view screens in each cabin announced the planned
maneuvered. Each cabin also came equipped with Rough Duty
chairs usually built into a wall as part of the decor. All
chairs had occupant sensors activated during the worm hole
warning. The computer was able to report when all personnel
were accounted for.
"Controlled worm hole count down initiated." Captain Anthony
said almost sarcastically after shutting the bridge claxon off.
As Commander Tarva watched the count down approach zero she
couldn't help but think this could be their actual first step to
meet the Borg or it could all end right now.
"Shields at Maximum" she heard Commander Norton report just
before she saw the view screen rush at her. It felt as if she
was being crushed on a high gravity planet. She could feel her
seat begin to wrap around her and heard a female voice begin to
scream. In front of her Ensign O'Malley bucked against the
restraints and belts, it must of been her screaming. Other
voices began to fill her head as the rest of the bridge crew
joined the chorus of screams. She watched Ensign O'Malley start
screaming in pain and soon heard the new female voice. Tarva
realized that she must have heard her own voice to begin with.
As the count down on the view screen approached the shut
down point Tarva thought she could feel the ship bump or shift a
little. The ship seemed to begin to fall away from her. She
felt like she was alternately hanging from the restraint belts
and being pushed back into the chair. The timer on the view
screen counted passed the set shut down point.
The Vigilante seemed to tumble end over end through the worm
hole it's own warp drives had created. The effect was no longer
controlled by the Vigilante. Tarva knew something was wrong by
the change in the felt effect and tried to reach for her own
controls which proved at first quite elusive.
After bringing up helm station she began issuing shut down
and stabilization commands to the drive systems. Nothing seemed
to have any effect finally she started desperate maneuvers
including reverse warp. Anything to break out of the worm hole.
When the Vigilante finally broke out, the crew blacked out.
Tarva woke to the sound of a moaning bridge crew. The view
screen showed 3 minutes 22 seconds of worm hole effect. The
other members were slowly regaining conciseness. Tarva
unbuckled the straps and opened her restraints. Ensign O'Malley
was already standing and stretching.
Captain Anthony hit his intercom and said "Engineering,
Dolittel what the hell happened to us?"
"I don't know, we're trying to figure that out now. "
Dolittel said groggily.
Tarva saw Ensign O'Malley punching buttons on her console.
"Ensign O'Malley, report what is our present location?"
"According to the Star Charts we're well within the
Romulan Empire."
"I was afraid of that" the Captain muttered.
"Bridge this is Engineering"
"Go ahead" Tarva said.
"Sir we'll have to shut down all power to shields and
engines so we can effect repairs to number three warp engine"
"Commander Dolittel we are in the middle of the Romulan
Empire we may be needing the warp drives and shields. Do we
currently have shields and cloaking?"
"Yes sir, shields are at 40 percent and cloaking is
activated."
"Do we have maneuvering capabilities?"
"Engines one and two are on line engine four will remain
inoperative until engine three comes back on line. Our current
sustainable top speed is warp 7 and the so called 'controllable
worm hole' is inoperative."
"Ensign O'Malley, at warp 7 how long will it take to get to
our original destination?" Anthony said turning to his
navigator.
The Ensign punched a few buttons and reported "Five weeks,
three days ".
"and Warp 9.6?"
Ensign O'Malley reentered her figures and said "One week
five days."
"Engineering, what is the estimated time for repairs and
corrections to warp coil?"
"We should be able to do it in three days." was Dolittel's
reply.
Anthony thought for a bit and said to his first officer "If
we commence with these repairs we're going to need some place to
hide. We don't want to be hanging in the middle of Romulan
territory with all systems off line. No matter how well our
hull protects us from sensors."
"Agreed, Sir, What do you have in mind." Tarva Said.
"Since the Romulans may have detected our worm hole this may
not be the best place to hang out. Ensign O'Malley is there an
uninhabited star system in this area?"
"Sir, sensors show two systems in this sector, our records
of Romulan space are not detailed enough to give specific
habitation information. One system, however, is a red dwarf
star and it is very unlikely there would be any colonies there
but there may be a science outpost."
"Set course for the red dwarf system"
"Course plotted and set" O'Malley said immediately.
"At warp 7 what is our ETA?"
"two days seven hours twenty three minutes, Sir"
"Sir," Commander Norton interrupted "Romulan war bird
uncloaking about ten kilometers off port bow."
"Have they seen us?" Tarva asked.
"Not yet, they're apparently here to investigate the worm
hole. They are doing intensive sensor sweeps of the area.
Weapons are unarmed and shields are at a minimum."
Tarva looked at the image Norton had put up on the screen.
"If they were able to get here that fast we must be in a heavily
travel sector."
"Agreed," Anthony said "set course to red dwarf system full
impulse. Lets put a little distance between us before going to
warp. We don't know how good their motion detectors are. Engage
"Engineering"
"Commander Dolittel here."
"Commander, we will be in position for you to effect your
repairs in about three days"
"Very good, Dolittel out."
Anthony then turned to Commander Norton "Have they spotted
us yet?"
"Not yet sir, the war bird is still directing sensors at the
area of the worm hole exit."
"Very good, Helm, warp 7, engage".
The Vigilante jumped to warp seven and headed toward the red
dwarf.
There were no research stations or other habitats in the
system. There were several small planets and a gas giant, the
vigilante dropped into a close orbit around the giant and tried
to hide in its electromagnetic aura.
Engineering crawled into the warp engines to fix the bad
coil and test the other three. The rest of the crew began
running extensive diagnostics of all systems.
Commander Tarva's aversion to sleep began to catch up with
her. Captain Anthony ordered her to her cabin until the warp
drives were back on line. He made it quite clear that she was
not to return to the bridge unless ordered there.
Tarva was wearing the under uniform shorts and tank top
while exercising in her cabin. She had set up several gadgets
for more efficient exercise. A chin-up bar was stretched
between the room dividers and a slanted sit-up board was in her
front room. Her hair was rolled in to a bun at the back of her
head and she was soaked with sweat. This is how Commander
Norton found her when he came to visit.
"Your suppose to be resting." he said as she wiped sweat
from her high forehead.
She looked around the room and said "I am relaxing."
then went into the head.
"I don't think this is what the Captain had in mind" Simon
said as he dropped into one her chairs. Because of their
similar experiences they had become fast friends.
Simon heard Tarva taking a shower and had time to reflect on
the circumstances which brought him here. He had spent his
childhood on a planet called Hellguard. It was a planet the
Romulans occasionally dumped their half breed children born of
captives. He was approximately twenty when was he found as an
emaciated stow away on a pirate freighter that had visited
Hellguard. They put him to work as slave labor and it took him
nearly two years to escape to a Federation colony.
His first task was to create a new life. He started by
picking a new name. He decided a human name would be as fresh a
beginning as he could get. After many years he was finally able
to work his way to Earth and petition to the Academy for a
scholarship. Thanks to the long life associated with being half
Volcan and half Romulan he was not considered too old.
He was finally content, after years of hopping from ship to
ship he was finally on the most powerful Star Ship Star Fleet
had ever conceived.
Tarva came out from her shower wearing her short black robe
and her wet hair tied up in a towel. She sat cross legged on
her bed and said "How are the repairs coming?"
"Commander Dolittel reports that the repairs are coming
along on schedule. We should be able to continue the tests of
the Vigilante in a day or so."
"Very good we have a lot to do before we can embark on our
mission. Has there been any more signs of Romulans in the
area?"
"We've been keeping a constant passive scanner watch since
taking the shields and warp drives off line. There has been no
sign of activity in this area."
"This all seems too easy."
"The right equipment can make a difficult job seem easy."
Tarva smiled at this cliche, Simon seemed to like cliches.
She responded with her own "Yes but sometimes when things seem
to be going right something has got to go wrong."
They both laughed at their exchange, Norton then got
serious.
"Sashon," very few people knew her personal name and fewer
yet would ever use it, "you haven't been sleeping much since
coming on board, we all know it, is there anything I can do to
help?"
Tarva sat up stiff "A Kalonian does not need as much sleep
as other members of the Federation." she said proudly.
Simon was not impressed, he seldom was, "You haven't
answered my question. From one suspicious personality to
another, something is wrong, you can't hide it from me. I know
you too well".
Tarva made a point of looking at her time piece and
announced "It is time for me to sleep, we can finish this
conversation at a later date."
Knowing he was at a bulk head he stood bowed slightly from
the hips and walked out.
Tarva assumed her cross legged meditation position. It did
not give her the absolute rest every body eventually needed. It
did however give her some rest and the dreams didn't come.
...Tarva lay in the escape pod barely conscious. She could
see out of her right eye but only barley. She could feel a
weight laying across her. With great effort she managed to pull
herself out and look down at it. The remains of her Captain
still lay partially on her. His black skin was barely
recognizable through the blood and lacerations. Most of the
front of the body had taken the force of the explosion that had
thrown them into the pod. Much of the flesh and muscle had been
blackened from the blast.
As she looked at it the body shuddered and took a labored
breath. It's eye opened and the burned skull turned to look at
her. The remains of its mouth and jaw struggled to form words.
"You failed." it gasped "The ship is destroyed your Captain
and crew are dead. How is it that you managed to save your
self? A Kalonian putting herself ahead of her comrades who
depended her? Who do you think you are? Do you think you
really deserve to live?" It had been edging toward her and
grabbed her face. It started pulling her towards it, with what
was left of it's mouth dangling open.
Tarva woke thrashing and screaming she was totally soaked in
sweat. She could still feel hands on her face and screamed even
louder.
She could feel words in her mind telling her to be calm.
She was safe and nothing could hurt her. She could still feel
the hands touching her face but now it was calming. She thought
she could even see her own face with light skinned hands on it.
The nightmare had turned to a dream she could relax and let her
muscles loosen. Finally she felt safe enough to open her eyes
and see what was real.
Commander Norton sat above her, his bald head accented by
his pointed ears. His hands had been the ones she had felt. He
pulled his hands away and looked into her eyes.
"How do you feel?" he said.
"What happened?"
"I wasn't gone more than twenty paces when I came back in to
ask you something. You had already fallen into a dream,
nightmare. As soon as I touched you, you started screaming. I
only had time to use a mind meld to calm you as you came out of
it."
"Every time," Tarva finally admitted "I fall a sleep the
dreams of the Eclipse's destruction return. They change,
they're becoming more vivid, more twisted. Scenes that would
normally not bother me are scaring me like I've never known.
I've become frightened of sleep, a Kalonian warrior afraid of
her bed. What have I become?"
"You need to resolve the guilt you feel of being the only
survivor of the Eclipse." Norton said. "I don't know if I can
help you with that. It is something you must admit to your self
and cope with it. I can, however, use the mind-meld to perhaps
help you sleep better. Are you willing to let me try?"
Tarva thought for a second then looked down at the black
robe plastered to her body with sweat. "I'll try." she said.
She then got up and went into her bathroom. He could see
her open the robe and drop it off her arms as she disappeared
around the corner.
When Tarva returned she was wearing a robe the same design
as the black one only a dark red. She still wore the Simtar on
her right shin. It occurred to him that he had been extremely
lucky she hadn't reached for it when she woke from the
nightmare.
Tarva got into her bed, for the first time in a long time
under the blanket. Commander Norton sat in a chair next to her
and lightly touched the sides of her head as if massaging the
temples.
As she drifted into sleep he assured her the dreams were an
illusion. This time with his comfort the dreams stayed away.
He could keep the dreams from her, the guilt she would have to
work out on her own. He did however plant suggestions to keep
the fear away. Without the terror she had been experiencing
with the nightmares, she would be able to sleep.
Tarva woke to the piping sound on her intercom and Captain
Anthony paging her. She sat up and looked around her.
Commander Norton was long gone. Her red robe was tangled into
the covers of her bed, all she wore was the Simtar and sheath
strapped to her leg. How long she had been a sleep she had no
idea but she felt totally refreshed.
"Commander Tarva here" she said as she stood and stretched.
"Please report to the bridge immediately."
"Aye, Sir."
Tarva looked at her time piece and tried to remember what
time it was when she kicked Simon out the first time. By her
calculations she must have been asleep over fifteen hours.
When Tarva arrived on the bridge she hadn't taken the time
to brush and braid her hair as normal. Instead it lay rather
unruly on the top of her head and a long pony tail tied in
several places hung down her back.
On the view screen was a distant shot of an uncommon Romulan
ship. Tarva took her seat next to the Captain studied the image
for a few seconds and said "What is it?"
"It appears to be a Romulan research vessel of some kind."
Commander Norton said. "It came out of warp uncloaked several
minutes before we started paging you."
"What's its projected course?"
"That's why we've gotten the bridge crew together." Anthony
said "Its current trajectory will put it in orbit around this
planet in about an hour"
Tarva checked the current ship's configuration. The shields
and engines were still off line. The blast shields were shut to
help reduce the Vigilante's sensor profile.
"Are we going to go into silent running?" she asked.
"All departments are preparing for the restricted movements
called for by silent running." Commander Norton reported "It'll
initiate in five minutes."
"And Engineering?"
"Engineering, reports all systems should be back online in
six hours. They are beyond the point of no return and must
finish the repairs before they can bring anything up." Captain
Anthony said seemingly unconcerned.
"And what is the current plan?" Tarva said looking at her
Captain.
"We sit and hope they don't see us. The planet is big
enough, unless they actually see us they shouldn't pick up any
sign of us."
"Hence the silent running."
"That's correct, Commander."
"I hope it works."
"Your not the only one." Captain Anthony Reclined his chair
slightly and looked at the screen.
The crew of the Vigilante began a long wait. They took
their places in the Rough Duty chairs. All accept essential
activity was curtailed.
Many automatic systems were discontinued or limited. The
Turbo lifts ran at one quarter speed unless an emergency over
ride was issued. Most important, however, was that the life
support circulation systems were also limited.
When the Vigilante's orbit took it to the night side of the
planet the temperature dropped to an unusual and generally
uncomfortable 5 degrees Celsius. On the day side the
temperature rose some what but the hull construction didn't
allow much solar energy to penetrate. Temperature changes were
expected so all Rough Duty seats were temperature controllable
but it didn't help much.
Engineering continued their repairs but at a much slower
pace. Noises from any accidents may be picked up by the Romulan
ship, especially if it was a research vessel with hypersensitive
scanners.
The arms holding the warp drives did not have artificial
gravity. The engineers working on the drives were carried
through the arms in specially designed turbo lifts. They then
worked in zero gravity using magnetic tools and holders. The
work required highly skilled personnel and was extremely
dangerous.
The valve that ruptured had been damaged during the original
mishap. When it blew, the specialist never new what hit her. A
large blast of gas crushed her against the bulkhead, it also
caused an exterior evacuation valve to blow. The resulting gas
leak caused a bright orange streak as it burned in the planet's
atmosphere.
When the emergency lights flashed, Ensign O'Malley shifted
the view screen to reverse. As the bridge crew watched, an
orange streak flared out behind them.
Captain Anthony turned to his First Officer and said "I
think we're in trouble".
"Engineering, what happened down there?" Tarva said.
"Unknown, Sir" came Chief Swanson's voice "Commander
Dolittel is suiting up to take a team and have a look."
Tarva turned on the view screen and looked at the concern on
Swanson's face. "We're going to need maneuvering as soon as
possible." Tarva said trying to stress the urgency.
"Commander," Swanson said "We still needed two hours before
the accident happened."
"Chief, we need to get this thing moving. We're also going
to need weapons or your not going to have time to finish the
repairs." Captain Anthony said.
Chief Swanson had gone ghost white, dealing with command was
not her job, she was a transporter Chief. "We'll do what we
can." she said and turned off the screen.
Anthony turned to Tarva and said "Chief Swanson needs some
help."
Tarva headed toward the turbo lift issuing the emergency
over ride commands as she went.
"Sir" it was Ensign O'Malley.
"Yes, Ensign."
"Sir, all the drop ships are armed and D.S. Three is still
equipped with cargo latches..."
"Of course, we can use it to change our orbit, if we have
time. Commander Norton take Ensign O'Malley, launch two drop
ships, one to provide cover the other to move the Vigilante" the
Captain said.
"Ensign O'Malley?" Commander Norton asked the Captain.
"She's the only one on board who's had experience piloting
the tug converted Drop Ship."
"Very well" Norton said joining the navigator at turbo-lift
two and said to the intercom "Shuttle bay, prepare drop ships
three and seven for emergency use."
"Acknowledged" was the brief reply.
As the pair left the bridge Captain Anthony reconfigured his
console for the navigator station.
As soon as the turbo lift's door closed Commander Norton
started giving additional instructions to the shuttle bay.
"Commander, Sir, don't we have any other Drop Ship pilots on
board?" Ensign O'Malley asked when Commander Norton finished
talking to the shuttle bay.
"No, we do not. The drop ship pilots will be boarded after
the space trials"
"That helps us a lot now doesn't it?"
"Well, Ensign, it's keeping you busy."
The turbo-lift's high speed yellow warning light flashed,
then it jerked to a stop at the shuttle bay. In the shuttle
bay, two Drop Ships waited for launch. Out side of the lift two
light weight pilot's pressure suits waited for them.
They had already started removing their baggy black uniforms
while in the lift. Jackets and boots laying on the floor of the
lift, Commander Norton and Ensign O'Malley stepped out of their
pants as they stepped out of the lift and into the pressure
suits.
The doors of the Drop Ships stood open and the engines were
already warming up. As they approached the ships, the shuttle
bay doors opened with only a force field between them and open
space. When they entered their perspective ships, the lowered
steps practically lifted them in as they closed behind them.
As soon as she was strapped in Ensign O'Malley had Drop Ship
Three powered up for launch. She watched D.S. Seven launch and
flicker out practically before he was out of the bay. Janice
waited a preset time and launched D.S. Three. As soon as she
could power back from launch she too engaged the cloaking.
Time was of the essence, the gas they leaked had burned in
their orbit. It's composition, caused a solid sensor reading
when it burned. Her goal was to shift the Vigilante to a
different orbit so the Romulans would be a lot less likely to
find it. Luckily they had taken an orbit on the opposite side
of the planet but it wouldn't be long before they spotted the
gas trail.
Immediately after launching, Ensign O'Malley turned D. S.
Three back toward the bulbous main body of the Vigilante. She
skimmed across the hull between the upswept arms of the top warp
engines. The magnetic couplings were extended searching for the
Vigilante's frame.
Since the Romulan's sensors would have a very difficult time
finding the Vigilante the largest worry was someone actually
seeing them from a view screen or window. If They got close
enough to be spotted, D.S. Seven would have to destroy the
Romulan ship before it could report to it's superiors. Under no
circumstances, could the Vigilante allow it's existence be known
by the Romulans.
The Vigilante was designed with scramblers hopefully capable
of confusing the Borg for an extended period of time. They were
prepared to use the scramblers to prevent the Romulans from
reporting back until D.S. Seven was able to destroy them.
Hopefully, it would not come to that.
The feedback from the couplings told her she was over a
likely spot. Slowly she landed D.S. Three on the hull of the
Vigilante and engaged the couplings at full strength. The
connection, however, was not strong because of the composite
hull but it would have to do.
The Drop Ship's sensors showed the Romulan closing the gap
from the opposite side of the planet. She had to move the
Vigilante away from the current orbit and try to keep the planet
between them and the Romulans.
The problem was that because of the weak connection she
could not accelerate quickly. She had to work slowly and nudge
the Vigilante into a still lower and different orbit.
"Ensign O'Malley" came Captain Anthony's voice over the
directed beam communications "Their getting close."
"Sir, I have a weak connection if I accelerate too quickly
I'll lose it. How much longer till we have cloaking back on
line?"
"Because of the accident, Commander Dolittel estimates we're
back to just under two days."
The Romulan research vessel Raptor had just returned to its
post. It's mission was the study of the effects of a collapsing
red star on it's planets.
"Commander, I read some kind of an anomaly on the opposite
side of the planet." the young female Romulan said almost
apologetically.
"Elaborate." said an older female Romulan sitting in the
middle of the bridge.
"I was running standard high altitude atmospheric scans when
I watched an object form and grow in low orbit. It reads as a
solid cylinder about 10 symtons long. We are currently too far
away to get an accurate reading on it's composition." said the
young sensor operator.
"Perhaps we have found a new phenomenon." said the lead
scientist sitting at another sensor station.
"Helm, adjust orbit for close inspection of this anomaly"
the Commander said.
The Raptor adjusted orbit to intercept the anomaly. As they
approached, the sensor operator reported "Sir, it is not solid,
it appears to be a gas that registered solid on the long range
sensors."
As the lead scientist studied his scanners he reported "I am
not aware of any element that would create that kind of
reading."
The anomaly was soon close enough to be put on the screen.
It was a long orange streak that seemed to be fading into the
atmosphere.
The young sensor operator finished the analysis and said
"Sir, it appears to be pure mhalogin gas burning in the
atmosphere."
"Where did it come from." the Commander said to herself.
"Did you say mhalogin?" came an older male's voice from an
open door.
"Yes, Centurian, but mhalogin does not appear naturally in
pure form and is rare in the Empire" the operator said.
"I know, but the Federation uses it to cool warp drives."
the Centurian said.
With the Centurian's comment the Commander hit the Red Alert
and yelled "Shields....Shields..." Before the inexperienced
crew was able to bring shields up the ship rocked from an
explosion.
"What happened?" the Commander shouted.
"We've been hit" replied the Centurian calmly.
"Get those shields raised. Damage report, where were we
hit..sensors, who fired on us" the Commander shouted feeling
that she was about to lose her first command.
The Centurian stood at a console after relieving a much
younger crew member. "Commander," he said "the shields are
inoperative."
The bridge rocked from another explosion from a different
side of the ship. The helm console exploded in the operator's
face.
"What's happening? Helm, get us out of here. Communications
issue a distress call, tell them we are being attacked by an
unknown force."
"Commander," the Helmsman said after the sparks died down
from her console. "I get no response from my console and
engineering reports major damage from the last blast. All
engines are off line."
"Commander," the senors Operator said "the sensors are
inoperative, all I get is static."
The Communications Officer said "All communications are
down, I was not able to issue the distress call."
The Centurian studied the communications console then the
scanners. "Commander," he said.
"Centurian" she acknowledge.
"I believe our scanners and sensors are being jammed. They
were not damaged in either attack. Also," he said "the two hits
we received were precise, they knew right were to cripple us
with minimal damage."
The Commander sat down in her chair heavily and looked at
the fading orange streak. "A trap and we fell right into it.
How did the Federation get into the heart of the Empire without
detection."
"Maybe they didn't." the Centurian said.
"What do you mean."
"Perhaps this is a test. Perhaps you are being tested for
worthiness for higher command."
She looked at him suspiciously "If this were the case
wouldn't you be told of it?"
"I have no such knowledge."
"Is this how they tested you in your day?"
"We did not have the precision when I was young to conduct
this kind of test. I have also never heard of it being done.
This does not, however, preclude it from starting."
"So you don't have any actual knowledge that this is some
kind of test?"
"Just the facts so far. We are in the middle of the Empire
in an inconsequential system. We have been attacked by an
unseen enemy with such precision that we are totally helpless
but have suffered very light casualties. In fact so far there
have been no deaths reported. It is my duty to report all
possible alternatives to you."
The Communications officer had been checking the
surveillance films. "Commander," he said "I have found the
scenes of the attack."
"We have pictures of our attacker?"
"They're real brief, I missed them the first time around. I
slowed the tape down and you can see it frame by frame."
"Main screen"
"This is the first attack." the Communications officer said
as he pressed a few buttons.
The view was an angle up from under main body of the ship.
A frame at a time passed and they watched the nose of a strange
looking ship start to uncloak. The star field peeled away from
it as if the ship were emerging from a pool of water. Before it
was half uncloaked a missile fired from its nose. The cloaking
began to reform around the front of the ship as the tail
finished uncloaking. At no time, was there a frame that showed
the ship totally uncloaked.
The Communications officer then said "I can overlay all
frames and get a complete picture of the craft." He pushed a
few more buttons and a complete picture of the mysterious ship
appeared on the screen. In front of it was a stream of
torpedoes caused be the overlaying of the frames.
The ship was a dull gray color. It had a stub nose with
bridge obviously the top half and weapons appeared to fill the
bottom half. The body was wide and boxy with a single access
door on the side. The back lifted above the box with what was
obviously the drives. Missing, were the standard warp drive
pods sticking away from the body.
"No warp drives." The Commander said.
"Were did it come from, if it doesn't have warp drives?"
someone asked.
"A mother ship." The Centurian answered.
"Do you know what it is?" the Commander asked the Centurian.
"My best guess, would be what we used to call a 'personnel
lander'" the Centurian said. "We used them when I was a very
young officer and the Empire was expanding rapidly. They
quickly carried warriors into battle zones where transporters
could not be used. Planets that had transporter scramblers or
whose atmosphere scrambled transporters naturally. I even
commanded several landing crews." The Centurian shuttered at
the memory of the bloody battles. These operations were not
well chronicled because of their high mortality rate.
"Is this one of those landers?" the Communications officer
asked.
The Centurian walked up to the screen and said "No, but it
has similar features." he indicated the wide body and rounded
bottom. "The bottom appears to have extra protection for the
stress of dropping through the atmosphere." He then pointed to
the back. "The main drives sit high, allowing for cargo to be
quickly loaded on and off through wide back doors. If we had a
view of the back I'd stake my life it's got them back there.
Finally if it wasn't designed to go into battle, it wouldn't be
armed and cloaked. If it were designed for battle in space, it
would have warp drives, therefore, it must be designed for
battle planet side."
The Commander sat and studied the picture then said "What do
sensors say during the exact time these frames were taken?"
The scanner Operator said "I've been running all scanner
logs for the time frame. The best I can come up with is that
they seem to have picked the ship up as a small piece of debris
of undetermined make up." She then replaced the image on the
screen with the scanner interpretation for the same area and
time.
Half the screen showed a graphic representation of what the
scanners had picked up the other side showed an analysis of the
same data. The graphics showed an irregular shaped lump fade
on, stay several frames, then fade out. At the time the lump
reminded on screen the analysis showed size about a quarter that
of the ship they had seen and mass as undetermined. No life was
registered and all other data showed as undetermined.
"What ever this thing is," the Commander said "It barley
needs cloaking"
"Why doesn't it just destroy us and get it over with?" the
Helmsman asked.
"Centurian," the Commander said "What would happen if we
suffered a massive loss of coolant from a warp drive?"
"We'd be crippled" he replied.
"That's right. If this landing craft doesn't have warp
drives, it couldn't have leaked the mhalogin. Therefore,
another ship must have leaked it."
"It's protecting it's mother ship while effecting repairs".
"And if the landing craft is cloaked and immune to the
sensors so probably would be the mother ship. If it were still
cloaked, however, they wouldn't be worried about us being here."
"The Federation doesn't cloak its ships," The Centurian
added "but The Klingons do."
The Commander turned and looked at the Centurian and asked
"After all these years in service to the Empire, do you truly
believe the Klingons would have let us live?"
"No"
"Now forgetting the official propaganda about the Federation
and relying only on your experience as a War Bird commander,
what would the Federation do?"
"The Federation would do all they could to avoid killing
even a sworn enemy." he said as if having a terrible secret
dragged from him.
The Commander continued to look at her Second in Command and
advisor then said "What if the Federation is experimenting with
new technology, were would be the best place to put it to a true
test? Inside the Romulan Empire, right. Now, what if they had
an accident while stalking a harmless scientific vessel?"
"They would do all they could to keep us from finding them
out."
"Precisely, If their cloaking is down our scanners would
pick them up but only as debris of undetermined make up, like
the landing craft."
"So, they would have to cripple us while they limped away to
make repairs."
The Commander suddenly smiled and said to the crew "Run all
scanner logs since picking up the mhaligon trail. Look for any
debris of undetermined makeup. Also, run a high resolution scan
of all view screen logs looking for anything that looks like
another ship."
A loud claxon began blaring all over the ship. The bridge
crew looked at the Commander and the Centurian.
The Commander said almost in a panic "It's the Intruder
alert from engineering."
Practically before the Commander had a chance to finish,
several places on the bridge shimmered briefly and figures
wearing dull gray armored suits with darkened face shields where
standing in strategic locations. Before anyone on the bridge
had time to react, the intruders started shooting large black
phasers at them.
The Commander and Communications officer were the first to
go down. Before the Centurian was hit, he had time to fire his
disrupter at one of the intruders. Several inches a head of the
suit a deflector shield shimmered when the blast hit. The
armored intruder returned fire and the Centurian was thrown
against the console he had taken over earlier.
Meanwhile, all over the ship, including the bridge,
canisters appeared and began emitting a white gas. The effects
were relatively slow but the crew was soon unconscious. Those
that were able to grab a gas mask were soon stunned down by an
armored figure that would beam in, shoot them, remove the mask,
then beam out.
Two minutes after the intruder alert claxon came on a gloved
had reached to the Commander's console and turned it off.
Commander Tarva looked at the command console through her
helmet. "Let's work fast" she said into her intercom "the
sooner we get back, the sooner Commander Dolittel will be able
to get back to work on the warp drives." With transporters on
line, Dolittel was unable to continue repairs.
Another figured appeared on the bridge with phaser in hand.
Commander Norton looked around and said to Tarva "All ships
personnel have been neutralized. Once the gas is gone they
should be out about seventy two hours."
"That should give Mr Dolittel more than enough time." Tarva
said as she pulled the Commander from her seat and dropped her
on the floor. "OK, all personnel listen up, our first mission
is to find out if they actually saw the Vigilante. If they did
we'll have to destroy the ship. I regret it, but its necessary
for our own survival. If we can find no record that they have
seen the Vigilante we must remove all records of their encounter
with us, starting with their entrance into this star system."
"Too bad we don't have the time to wipe their memories as
well, that would make it really clean." Norton said.
Tarva said "I know, but all they will have is memories of a
mysterious attack and no proof that will, in any way, link it to
the Federation. Just speculation. Without concrete evidence
the decision makers will not lend a lot of credence to their
reports."
"I hope your right." Norton said.
Tarva smiled and said "So do I." she had taken the
Commander's seat and began down loading the ship's technical
data banks to the Vigilante. She also began down loading all
ship's logs to the Vigilante. She knew that in the time they
had, she wouldn't get all of the information from either data
bank but would get quite a bit.
After five hours, Commander Tarva signaled to the Vigilante
'mission complete'. All the Vigilante personnel and gas
canisters beamed off at once. With the canisters gone the
ship's life support would start clearing the gas off the ship.
Once the gas was gone, the crew would remain unconscious for an
estimated seventy two hours.
Sixty eight hours after beaming off the Romulan ship,
Commander Dolittel signaled the bridge that the all systems were
on line and functioning properly. They also had begun to pickup
transmissions to the Romulan ship. The transmissions meant that
they would soon be having more company investigating the lost
contact.
The Vigilante jumped to warp 9.6 as soon as leaving the star
system. Captain Anthony immediately ordered a course plotted
back to sector 5876.34 using the controlled worm hole effect.
The crew nervously watched the count down remembering the last
trip.
This time Dolittel's realignments worked, dropping the
Vigilante into the correct sector. The worm hole effects were
not nearly as sever and the exit was nearly undetectable when
they dropped out.
The Captain then gave the original coordinates as new
heading. The Vigilante immediately jumped to warp eight for its
new destination.
The Enterprise had been waiting at the predetermined meeting
place with no contact. They were several days over the
estimated window of arrival. Captain Picard, however, had
strict orders to stay on station until ordered other wise.
"Captain" Lieutenant Worf said "Sub-space message coming in
for your eyes only".
"Thank you, Mr Worf, I'll take it in my ready room."
The message was cryptic, to say the least, but it told
Picard all he needed to know. After reading the message Captain
Picard remained in his ready room and called Mr Worf in.
"Captain, there has been some trouble in Ten Forward." Worf
said stiffly before Picard could get down to his own business.
"What kind of trouble?"
"Sir, Two of our guests have been fighting rather severely."
"Just how severely?"
"They fought using knives, Sir. Doctor Crusher is currently
mending both of them. It seems they were able to inflict quite
a bit a damage to each other before security intervened." Worf
said obviously embarrassed for the performance of his personnel.
"Is there something you think I should do about this Mr
Worf" asked Picard.
"Sir, I was wondering what kind of punishment I should
impose since they are guests."
"Well, don't they have a Senior Officer who can deal with
this kind of situation."
At this Worf stiffened a little more "Sir, the combatants
were a Klingon officer and a Kalonian officer both claiming the
position. They decided to settle the argument; traditionally."
Picard sat back in his chair steepling his fingers in front
of his face and said "I see, perhaps after Doctor Crusher is
finished with them they should be placed together in the brig
for the duration of their stay on the Enterprise. If either is
still alive when it is time to leave we'll let their new
assignment take care of any further punishment.
"The reason I called you in Mr Worf is because I'd like you
to inform our guests that they should report to their assigned
assembly areas with their gear in eighteen hours."
"Will that be all, Sir" Worf Said before leaving.
"Yes, dismissed."
Worf turned crisply and walked back onto the bridge.
The two sat in the detention cell staring at each other.
They each wore a strange baggy black uniform with several
pockets. One had the high ridged forehead and nose of the
Klingon the other had a similar fore head but not nearly as
pronounced. The Kalonian stood a few centimeters shorter than
the Klingon but matched him in weight and stubbornness.
"If they hadn't interfered," the Klingon snarled "you'd be
dead, I had you beaten." he spoke in Federation Standard since
Kalonians and Klingons traditionally despised learning or
speaking the others' language.
The Kalonian laughed and said "You fool, you were about to
let your guard down thinking I was beaten. Then I would have
ended your life. Accept me as your superior officer and I'll
let you live when we get to where we are going."
Now it was time for the Klingon to laugh "I find it
distasteful enough to serve next to a Kalonian, I would sooner
die than serve under one."
"Like I said, that could be arranged."
At that the Klingon growled and advanced toward the Kalonian
who did the same. Before they came to blows they heard someone
holler to them. It was the Enterprise's resident Klingon.
"It is time to go." he said shutting off the force field.
He than threw them their bags, already packed. "Come with me,
you can take this up at you new assignment." Worf turned and
walked out of the detention area.
"You have trained together for many months," Worf said to
the pair as they followed him down the corridor. "I would think
that these differences would have been worked out by now."
"We trained in different teams." the Kalonian said.
The Klingon, like most, tried his best to ignore this
Federation fool.
Worf lead them to a cargo bay which was filled with many
more all wearing the same black uniform. The group was
comprised of a number of different peoples. Most prevalent were
Humans, Klingons, and Kalonians both male and female. There
were others too some looked like Volcans and other assorted
Federation races.
"What are we suppose to do here?" the Klingon said as he
entered the cargo bay.
"Wait." Worf said and closed the door behind them and
continued down the corridor to a turbo-lift.
Picard checked his the chronometer and said "Discontinue all
scanner operations, lower shields and turn off all exterior
recording devices."
Commander Ryker looked puzzled and said "Sir, do you think
that is a wise thing to do this close to the Neutral Zone?"
"Number One, if it wasn't the proper thing to do, I wouldn't
do it. Now are all of our guests in their assigned areas?"
"Yes, Sir" Ryker said "and all ship's personnel have left
the areas."
"Very good"
"Now What?"
"Now we wait." Picard said as he sat down in his chair.
"Sir," Commander Data Looked up from his console "All
personnel in the cargo and shuttle bays have just disappeared, I
believe they have been transported."
Picard smiled and said "Thank you Mr Data, now return to
normal operating conditions and set new course...."
to be continued ........
