March/April 2023 Challenge Entry: "And a Long-Forgotten Duck"

[Cobalt Frost]

"And a Long-Forgotten Duck"

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Captain’s Log

Challenger is transiting the Corridor, about a day out of Celvani space and Gateway Station. We’re returning home after having delivered the debris of a Calikron fighter craft, what we’ve taken to calling a ‘Kindjal’, to the Chop Shop.. that is, Starbase 136, for analysis.

Heh. We call them fighters, but truth be told, they’re more like frigates. Big beasties, no missile weapons but particle cannons from one end to the other. We’ve only seen a Calikron carrier once, on an image from a long-range probe, and that gave me nightmares for a week.

While there, I met with Adm. Durham to discuss the situation in Gateway sector. The Calikron, the soulless mechanical soldiery of the mysterious Ixu’prol, have been systematically probing Alliance defenses. Gabriel stopped and chuckled to himself. Well, that’s not entirely true. They’ve been probing Celvani defenses almost exclusively, launching sorties against Gateway Station on a regular basis. Curiously, they’re also active in the Orpheus Salient, unnervingly close to the Huuro Exclusion Zone.

The attacks have been going on for a few months now, though it was only in the most recent furball that we were able to actually take a Kindjal. The Kindjal fighters are unshielded, which makes them easy pickings, though there’re always so damned many of them that they can absorb heinous losses with little detriment. If they’re not destroyed outright, their self-destruct systems will utterly vaporize them, to avoid an enemy trying to capture one and study the tech. The USS Telperion used a high-band EM burst from her deflector dish, disabling a Kindjal before it could destroy itself, though Telperion had to be towed back to Gateway. She was lucky; we lost two Celvani heavy cruisers, seven destroyers from various Alliance worlds, the USS Kodiak, and the USS Huagao. Gabriel frowned as he remembered the Himalaya-class cruiser erupting in a silent fireball. The Silurians aren’t going to be too happy about that. At least she took one of the Ixu'prol battleships with her. And USS Castellan lost her entire command crew when her bridge was blown off; her captain was one of only five Matoka in Starfleet.

I don’t know how, but Challenger made it through with only some scorched hull panels. A little paint and a couple of new gamma welds was all we needed. Luck of the devil?

 

[Cobalt Frost]

A day later

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Gateway Station, in high ecliptic orbit of Celvanos IV
Station Command Deck, the ‘CommuniCore’

Red alert klaxons were screaming, echoing through every corner of the massive Gateway starbase. Admiral MacAllister swore under her breath. As if I didn't have a headache already... Her fingers danced over the controls of a barely-functioning terminal, somehow managing to coax the main viewscreen back to life. Telemetry from the station's damaged sensors as well as the few remaining WildCARD satellites flooded the screen. The images shocked everyone in Gateway's Ops center to silence.

Ensign Lynch's panicked voice finally broke the silence. "So many ships… so many ships. Look!!" He stabbed a finger towards the viewscreen, where an innumerable wave of Calikron attack craft preceeded two gargantuan battleships of the Calikron's masters, the Ixu'Prohl. "So many..."

"We can see that!" barked MacAllister, cutting him off. "Are the thermoprotonic mines on-line?"

"B-barely," Ensign Lynch replied, composing himself somewhat. "If we can get one to fire, the rest should go off.”

MacAllister turned to Ensign Sh’endo. “Isolate one mine. Pull power from anything but weapons and shields, whatever you need to punch a signal through the Calikron jamming.”

“But Admiral..." Ensign Lynch started.

"What?"

"Challenger is still in the Corridor."

And Erika is on board, she thought, her heart tightening. But I've got no choice. We have to try and stop them here.

“I have a clear signal, Admiral,” said Ensign Sh’endo. “Firing mechanism is primed.” Before MacAllister could give the order, an EPS conduit blew, raining shrapnel that killed Ensign Sh’endo and two others near her.

“Lynch,” MacAllister barked, “man that console, and blow the mine."

"Admiral?"

"I said blow it, goddammit!" Seeing the hesitation in Ensign Lynch's eyes, MacAllister stepped over to the panel and triggered the code sequence herself. The cold blackness of space near the station erupted in hellfire as the primal energies of the thermoprotonic mines were released...

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

At the same time

"Durham was there? I didn't see that bloated gunboat of his, the Rhadamanthus."

Gabriel frowned imperceptibly as he and Commander Connie Taylor stepped out of the turbolift onto Challenger’s bridge. "Yeah, he was there.”

"Ah. Scimitar-class cloak?"

The frown was replaced by a chuckle. "Nope. Waldo-class."

"Waldo-class?" Connie was visibly confused. Gabriel was about to reply, but all of the ship’s sensors lit up at once, and several alarms started screaming.

"I'll tell you later,” Gabriel said as he took the center seat.

"Captain!" said LCDR Nowar, hir voice heavy with alarm. "I'm reading a wave of energy coming towards us at half-impulse relative."

"Towards us?" Gabriel asked. The Corridor flowed strictly one-way, or so they'd thought. "Composition?"

"Hang on, gotta readjust.." Nowar’s dextrous fingers played over the hard-light controls of hir science station with virtuoso precision. "Mainly thermoprotium, though I’m picking up traces of chronitons and ionized gravitons.”

"Thermoprotium? Gods above and gods below, they must have blown the mines."

"Impact in 50 seconds," called out Lt. Priest. “Shields?”

"Shields won't function in the Corridor," said Connie, her tone gently reminding. "We can't try to slow down, either; the gravimetric shear would rip the ship apart."

Gabriel's gaze went distant, a look Connie recognized that meant he was making a series of intense calculations. He was silent for several seconds.

"Lt. Priest," said Gabriel gravely, "arm a nova torpedo, maximum yield." The bridge went deathly silent. A nova torpedo in the Corridor? What were the consequences?

"Sir, I..."

"Do it," Gabriel hissed. Erica tapped in the command on her tactical console. "Awaiting your authorization, sir."

"Computer, release safeties on nova torpedo, authorization Frost Retro Nine Blue Strike Five Nine Five.”

Authorization accepted, the computer stated.

“Fire.”

The viewscreen showed the blinding blue of the nova torpedo streaking towards the onrushing wave of roiling energy...

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

As the hellfire of the mines' detonation began to dissipate, a new explosion erupted at the Corridor's terminus, its blinding blue-white light overwhelming the station's visual sensor filters and bathing the CommuniCore in stark contrast.

"What the bloody hell was that?" MacAllister barked, blinking her watering eyes. The personnel in the CommuniCore were struggling to see, but a Vulcan - thanks to her inner eyelid - remained unaffected and started examining sensor telemetry.

"It would appear at least one nova torpedo was detonated within the Corridor," she stated flatly. "We are detecting no discernible debris, but the composition of the particulates borne on the explosion's pulse wave indicate the complete destruction of the ship that was in the Corridor." She looked over at MacAllister. "I am.. sorry, Admiral."

Challenger...

 

[Cobalt Frost]

Three days later

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Sound red alert, all hands to battle stations." Said Connie briskly. She turned to Gabriel. "Challenger is cleared for action."

"Remind me never to ride the Split Infinite again," quipped Gabriel, as Challenger emerged at high impulse from a temporal vortex, trailing exotic gases and proton fire. "I think I left my lunch ten thousand years ago."

"You were the one in a hurry to get back," Connie shot back. "Better a lost lunch than another visit from DTI."

"One more and I get a free toaster oven." He turned his attention towards Lt. Priest at Tactical. "Talk to me, Goose."

“Looks like about ten friendlies in action. Hostile forces, several dozen Kindjal and one Ixu’prol battleship. The battleship has taken a few good shots, but she’s still in it.”

“Deploy fighters and TALONs to deal with the Kindjals, Commander Taylor. Tactical, let’s bag us a battleship.”

Lt. Priest grinned ferally. "You're mine, bitch."

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

About two hours later

"Mr. Mokul, lay in for slip 13, thrusters ahead at steerage speed."

"Coming around for a seven-zero-niner."

"Transmit to harbormaster Gateway: Challenger on final, please provide flight path and approach vector." In response, Gateway's last operational phaser lance spat energized death, the beam passing mere meters from Challenger's saucer.

"Full stop!" Gabriel barked. "Open a channel!" MacAllister's face appeared through a fluctuating fog of static and distortion. "Due respect, Admiral, but what the actual hell?"

MacAllister ignored the question and fixed Gabriel with a hard stare. "The next shot will blow you out of the sky, unless you can prove you are who you say you are."

Gabriel had to bite back a smartassed remark; the look in MacAllister's eyes telling him she'd brook no shenanigans. Fine, he hissed under his breath, you asked for it.

"Quack, quack."

MacAllister's eyes widened in utter surprise. "No," she whispered, her face turning beet red. "You. You?

"YOU?!?"

 

[Cobalt Frost]

About 18 years before

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Despite the claims of various engineers over the years, starship and space station artificial gravity systems could never quite replicate a planet's natural gravity. Having lived most of his life aboard the Destiny's Moon (his parents’ tramp freighter) and various stations, Gabriel had arrived on Earth about two weeks before his first Academy semester started in order to acclimate himself. He'd been born on Earth - Caer Bannog, Scotland, to be precise - but had spent precious little time here since then. So, in addition to getting used to having solid ground under his feet, Gabriel thought a little sightseeing was in order.

He was, at this moment, sitting outside a Parisian tourist trap, the famous Café des Artistes. The office building where the Federation President held court was nearby – he’d taken the tour this morning -- and the Eiffel Tower was visible nearby, its lights starting to come on as the evening wore on.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Give me a call when your torpedo launcher doesn't go off so early," Mary Catherine MacAllister said as she shoved a barely-dressed, slightly over middle aged human male out of her hotel room. "Better yet, don't. That tiny thing wouldn't satisfy a tribble." She slammed the door and stomped back to the bed, frustrated in more ways than one. I need a goddamned drink, but there's no way in hell I'm paying for the flavored piss they stock in the mini-bar, she thought. Mary wriggled back into the Little Black Dress (tm) that she'd only recently wiggled out of, and headed out, somewhat unsteadily, out of the hotel. If she remembered correctly, there was a small store a few streets over that sold the good stuff and was open late.

As she made her way towards where she thought the store was, she passed the Café des Artistes. At one of the tables was a person that caught her eye. Not the best looking man I've ever seen, she thought, but handsome enough. He had a bottle of wine and one quarter-full glass on the table in front of him.

"Why are you wearing glasses?" she asked casually, sitting across from him.

"I'm allergic to Retinax," Gabriel said. "But it's really more of an affectation. My eyes work just fine." Mary noticed him trying to check her out without looking like he was checking her out.

She looked at the wine bottle. "Chateau Devancer?"

"Small winery in Avignon. Owner's a family friend."

"What are we celebrating?"

"I start at the Academy on Monday," Gabriel stated.

"You look a little older than the usual Academy nugget," said Mary lightly. Gabriel offered a half-smile.

"It's a long story. Seems like you're celebrating something as well."

"It's not official yet," she said in a conspiratorial tone, "but I just found out I'm being promoted to vice admiral."

Gabriel raised his glass, taking a sip. "Congratulations."

"Well," she said, leaning over to emphasize her cleavage, "how about we go somewhere and celebrate privately, and you can show me what else is long?"

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Some time later, the two were a tangle of limbs and sheets on the bed in Mary's hotel room. As Gabriel was running his hands over her body, he noticed a small purple mark underneath her left breast.

"Odd place for a scar," he mused.

"Birthmark," she said, "and yes, it looks like a duck."

"Quack, quack," Gabriel said with a smile. Mary cupped her breasts, giving them a little jiggle.

"You have these beauties in front of you, and you're messing with a little birthmark?" she teased.

"You're right, of course," he replied. "There are much better things to focus on..."

 

[Cobalt Frost]

Gateway Station
Admiral MacAllister's office

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

"So that was it, then?"

"We spent the night in the throes of passion. In the morning, you slurred a thank you for the night and sent me on my way. We never even told each other our names. I recognized you when the Unified Command sent out a press blurb about newly promoted personnel, but I never saw you again until Challenger was assigned to Gateway."

"Have you.. told anyone?"

"I don't see how it'd be anyone's business. We were consenting adults, we'd both had a bit to drink." Gabriel shrugged, offering his trademarked half-smile. "Pretty sure it's happened to a few other people over the years."

At this, MacAllister had to laugh. "Yeah, I suppose it has." She paused for a long moment. "Why did you never say anything?”

"I figured if you wanted to, you'd bring it up, though I had a feeling you didn't really remember."

A knowingly wry smile crossed MacAllister's lips. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were probably waiting for the perfect moment to use it against me. Something like that is grade-A blackmail material."

"You and I have butted heads quite a bit, but you know that's not my style." Gabriel had to grin. "But the look on your face was utterly priceless."

MacAllister smiled back and waved her hands, shooing him off. "Get back to your ship, Captain. I've got a station to put back together."

Gabriel stood and saluted smartly. "On your word, Admiral. Let us know how we can help."

"Never mention ducks again. Ever."

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

kanryou

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Love it! A quite unexpected twist on the challenge. And a title to draw people in.

Thanks!! rbs

 

[Will The Serious]

A trek shaggy dog story. Really really fun.

-Will