As he stepped onto the hot desert sand and under the bright Tiaitan sun, two significant things became immediately apparent to Commander Dale McBride. First; he should have packed the desert fatigues. The second, were the seventeen phaser rifles pointed at him and his men.
They were outmanned and outgunned but that didn’t stop Brin to have his team take position around the Stallion in a defensive posture. To their credit the Marines never flinched, not even when the Border Service took aim.
There were only two Starfleet officers among them. A Trill commander McBride immediately recognized as Tazla Star and a Bajoran lieutenant he had never met before. She had the kind of fierce look in her eye which reminded him a bit of Solly Brin on a bad day. He assumed correctly that she was Eagle’s chief of security.
“You are in direct violation of orders by Admiral Schwarzkopf,” said Tazla Star. “Lower your weapons and surrender yourselves.”
Brin gave her a bemused look. “You’re Star?”
“That’s right.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Honestly I don’t get what Nigel sees in you.”
Solly Brin smirked as she squirmed uncomfortably at the unexpected potshot. She glared at the big red man but didn’t say anything.
McBride saw an opening. “You’ve been sent to stop us for violating orders?”
She nodded.
“You don’t find that slightly ironic?” he continued and then looked at the Bajoran. “Don’t you, Lieutenant? Look who you are taking your orders from. A known traitor. Somebody who has been court martialed and thrown into prison for doing what? Disobeying direct orders. Disobeying direct orders from a man named Melvin Schwarzkopf. And now here we stand, roles reversed.”
Nora Laas however was not impressed in the slightest. “I don’t give a damn about Star or what she’s done in the past. We are here to discuss your surrender, Commander. I suggest you put down your weapons. Now.”
“And what if we don’t?” asked Brin without masking the challenging tone in his voice.
“You want to fight it out? Well, that’s fine by me too.”
Both Star and McBride shot their respective people chastising looks. McBride was slightly more successful with Brin then Tazla Star was with the Bajoran security officer.
“Alright,” said the Trill. “I’m not going to deny the irony of this situation. But take it from somebody who has been down this route before. You don’t want to do this. If you surrender to us now I’ll put in my report that you stood down without hesitation. I will say that you followed us back into orbit immediately and we’ll forget about this entire unfortunate affair.”
“Oh and in the process you make yourself look like a hero while we come out of this like a bunch of wussies,” said Brin who like the rest of the Border Dogs never once let his steady aim slip.
“It’s your egos or a court martial,” she shot back.
“And how will you explain what happened in orbit?” asked McBride provoking a rather disapproving look from the Orion. The Texan was sounding as if he was seriously considering the offer.
“Faulty communications,” she said. “It happens.”
“You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you, Commander? But it doesn’t matter what you put in your report. Schwarzkopf has already made plans for us and our skipper. He’ll have us hauled in front of a court martial like he did you. No matter what you say. You don’t really think that you will have any kind of influence over him, do you? He thinks of you about as much as he thinks of us. Maybe even less.”
Star could not deny that he was absolutely correct. Schwarzkopf was going to do exactly what McBride had said. At this point there was no way around it anymore.
“I make you a counter-offer, Commander,” said McBride. “You let us go and we’ll rescue both, our crewmember and yours. We’ll say you did everything you could to try and stop us. You even attempted to take out our engines and force us to crash but in the end, we managed to slip away.”
“I like that version much better,” said Brin.
“Think about it,” said McBride. “What do you gain to win from our surrender? We might lose two of our people. Give us a chance to try and bring them back. We both know that Schwarzkopf is wrong on this one.”
If Star was being swayed by McBride’s argument she did a good job of hiding it. She firmly kept her ground, her facial expressions unreadable, her phaser rifle gripped firmly.
Nora did not appreciate the silence which had ensued. “There is no way we’re going to let you go,” she said resolutely. “There are only two ways in which this can end. You can surrender or we will take you down.”
“You’re welcome to try,” said Solly Brin.
McBride kept his eyes on his counterpart. Like most everyone on Bluefin he didn’t think much of Star and agreed with the notion that she should have stayed locked up for a long, long time. But he also thought he saw something else in her now. Perhaps it was whatever Nigel Bane had seen. Differently to the Bajoran and even Brin she wanted to avoid a confrontation at any cost. She had surprised him by offering them a way out. But now, after measuring up her firm voice and uncompromising posture he understood something else. She was not going to stand down. Perhaps because it wasn’t in her nature, perhaps because there was more at stake for her then her already tarnished reputation. But she was not going to let them go.
And McBride was not going to surrender.
Once he had realized this, it became unmistakably clear that there was no way to get out of this but with a fight.
A loud roar in the skies above caught everybody by surprise.
It bordered on a miracle that the sudden distraction was not used as an excuse for a preemptive strike on either side. Instead, discipline prevailed even while most eyes wandered upwards to find the source of the noise.
Nora Laas and Solly Brin were notable exceptions. They kept their eyes, and more significantly, their weapons trained on each other.
Three black, fixed-winged aircraft were ripping through the sky at super-sonic speeds. All three were massive, easily two times the size of the Starfleet runabout and the Border Service Stallion combined. They were flying in a tight formation and at a low attitude, possibly in order to avoid detection by radar or sensor systems.
“What are they?” asked McBride.
Star recognized them. “Military bomber planes.”
The Bluefin’s first officer glanced at Bralus, the Bolian pilot who stood nearby. “Their heading?”
The young man nodded to reaffirm McBride’s suspicions.
“Commander,” the Texan said, addressing the Trill. “These bombers are heading right for the location where we believe our crewmember is being held. What do you think the odds of that would be?”
But Star didn’t have to do the math. If Schwarzkopf had found out about the location, she wouldn’t have put it passed the man to provide the Tiaitan military with those coordinates. And the government would not think twice to try and reduce the New Light settlements to rubble, not only to achieve a military victory and possibly destroy the rebel leadership but also to ensure that the Starfleet officers would not live to tell of their newfound knowledge of Tiaita’s civil war.
“Schwarzkopf to away team.”
The voice came from Star’s combadge but now that the planes overhead had passed, their roar had been replaced once more with a tense quiet, allowing the admiral’s voice to be heard by most of the assembled Starfleet and Bluefin crewmembers.
Star kept her eyes on McBride, making no overt move to reply to the admiral.
“You know what’s going to happen here, Commander,” said McBride. “You know what will happen if we let those planes get to our people first.”
“Schwarzkopf to away team, respond.”
“How many lives are you willing to sacrifice for this mission?”
“Star, answer me!”
The Trill removed her right hand from her phaser rifle–making sure it remained steady and aimed squarely at her counterpart a few short meters away–and tapped her combadge. “This is Star, go ahead, sir.”
“About time, Commander. What kept you so long?” he asked in an impatient tone, making sure she understood that he didn’t appreciate the delay. “Never mind. What’s your situation? Have you managed to intercept Bluefin’s landing party?”
“We forced them to land on the surface, sir,” she said, never taking her eyes off McBride. “However they do not appear as if they are willing to surrender to us.”
“I couldn’t care less about their inclinations. If they do not stand down you have my permission to use whatever force is required to incapacitate them.”
She noticed that the Bluefin crew was tensing slightly upon overhearing the admiral. Whatever force she’d use, they would respond in kind.
“Am I making myself sufficiently clear, Commander?”
Star hesitated for only a moment. “There is another matter, sir, which might change the situation somewhat. We have just spotted at least three bomber aircraft heading towards the location where our people are being held. I believe it would be safe to assume –“
“Commander, your job is to stop and apprehend the landing party. That is your one and only concern right now. Everything else is irrelevant to your current objective.” Schwarzkopf was losing his patience, his rising tone, clear evidence of that.
“With respect, sir, may I speak to Captain Owens?” she asked, allowing her carefully maintained mask of self-confidence to slip for the first time since the mission had begun.
“Don’t worry about the Captain. I’m giving you a direct order and I expect you to follow it. What the hell is your problem?”
And there it was again. A direct order from a superior officer. It always appeared to come down to that. They all had their orders and in truth nobody wanted to follow them. McBride and his people had obviously already made that decision. Akinola knew there were going to be consequences for his actions but he had come to terms with that.
Tazla Star needed to follow her orders or her short comeback was doomed. Certainly Altee would try to protect her if she acted in concordance with his wishes but even he hadn’t been powerful enough to make a court martial disappear.
Star made her choice.
“Admiral, the interference is worse than we previously anticipated, you are breaking up.”
A furious Schwarzkopf practically shouted through the perfectly clear comlink. “Don’t you dare pull that kind of stunt on me –“
“I can no longer receive you, Admiral,” she interrupted.
Nora Laas allowed herself a quick sideward glance at the acting first officer, giving her a disbelieving glare.
“I am terminating the connection until we find a way around the interference. Star out,” she added and slapped her combadge again.
Then she eyed the equally surprised McBride. “Here’s what’s going to happen,” she said. “You will provide us with the exact coordinates of the place where our people are being kept. We’ll head there ourselves and attempt to extract them before the bombers can destroy their target.”
“We’re not just going to give you the coordinates,” replied Solly Brin.
“I’m giving you a choice,” said Star. “Unless you would prefer a battle right here, right now, risking more lives and wasting more time. If we’re going to do this, we’re doing this on my terms.”
The Orion’s eyes sparkled as if he was considering which option he personally preferred. Saving T’Ser was of course his priority but he had never been somebody to turn away from a good fight.
“We’re wasting time just debating this,” said Star and looked at McBride. “What’s it going to be?”
He nodded slowly. “Alright, but we’ll follow you.”
Star glanced at the crash landed Stallion. “If you can get her in the air again, that’s fine with me.”
“The only question remaining then,” said McBride. “Who’ll take the first step?”
It turned out to be Star. She lowered her rifle. “Major, have your people stand down.”
Wasco didn’t hesitate and within a moment the entire contingent had lowered their weapons. Everyone except Nora Laas.
Star shot her an impatient look. “Lieutenant, stand down.”
“You can’t be serious about this,” she said, not able to believe what had happened.
But Tazla Star was not in the mood. “Lieutenant, I gave you a direct order.”
She laughed at that without any humor. “An order? That’s rich, seeing they don’t seem to mean much anymore these days,” she said.
The Trill was about to say something else but then Nora lowered her phaser rifle, understanding perfectly that she had no real choice in the matter. It was not as if she could take the entire Border Service landing party by herself.
Star faced the Texan. “Your move.”
McBride looked at his people and their expressions had remained so focused on their potential enemy that they were mostly unreadable. Perhaps the only exception was Solly Brin who had an almost pleading look on his face. ‘Let’s take them down while we have the chance,’ he seemed to ask.
Dale McBride lowered his phaser carbine.
Brin shrugged his shoulders. “Would’ve been too easy anyway,” he mumbled and followed suit.
“Mister Bralus, give them the coordinates.”
The Bolian nodded, swung the phaser onto his back and removed a data padd from his belt. He made sure it contained the requested information and then very carefully stepped forward as if the short meters between the two parties had been booby trapped with landmines.
He moved far too slow for Star. She approached him with large, determined steps and snatched the padd right out of his hand. She looked over the data and then back at McBride. “Thanks. We’ll head out right away. Follow us if you can,” she said and turned to head back to the runabout, Nora and the Marines in tow.
McBride allowed himself to breathe for the first time in what had seemed like hours just before he indicated for his team to hightail it back into the Stallion.
They were outmanned and outgunned but that didn’t stop Brin to have his team take position around the Stallion in a defensive posture. To their credit the Marines never flinched, not even when the Border Service took aim.
There were only two Starfleet officers among them. A Trill commander McBride immediately recognized as Tazla Star and a Bajoran lieutenant he had never met before. She had the kind of fierce look in her eye which reminded him a bit of Solly Brin on a bad day. He assumed correctly that she was Eagle’s chief of security.
“You are in direct violation of orders by Admiral Schwarzkopf,” said Tazla Star. “Lower your weapons and surrender yourselves.”
Brin gave her a bemused look. “You’re Star?”
“That’s right.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Honestly I don’t get what Nigel sees in you.”
Solly Brin smirked as she squirmed uncomfortably at the unexpected potshot. She glared at the big red man but didn’t say anything.
McBride saw an opening. “You’ve been sent to stop us for violating orders?”
She nodded.
“You don’t find that slightly ironic?” he continued and then looked at the Bajoran. “Don’t you, Lieutenant? Look who you are taking your orders from. A known traitor. Somebody who has been court martialed and thrown into prison for doing what? Disobeying direct orders. Disobeying direct orders from a man named Melvin Schwarzkopf. And now here we stand, roles reversed.”
Nora Laas however was not impressed in the slightest. “I don’t give a damn about Star or what she’s done in the past. We are here to discuss your surrender, Commander. I suggest you put down your weapons. Now.”
“And what if we don’t?” asked Brin without masking the challenging tone in his voice.
“You want to fight it out? Well, that’s fine by me too.”
Both Star and McBride shot their respective people chastising looks. McBride was slightly more successful with Brin then Tazla Star was with the Bajoran security officer.
“Alright,” said the Trill. “I’m not going to deny the irony of this situation. But take it from somebody who has been down this route before. You don’t want to do this. If you surrender to us now I’ll put in my report that you stood down without hesitation. I will say that you followed us back into orbit immediately and we’ll forget about this entire unfortunate affair.”
“Oh and in the process you make yourself look like a hero while we come out of this like a bunch of wussies,” said Brin who like the rest of the Border Dogs never once let his steady aim slip.
“It’s your egos or a court martial,” she shot back.
“And how will you explain what happened in orbit?” asked McBride provoking a rather disapproving look from the Orion. The Texan was sounding as if he was seriously considering the offer.
“Faulty communications,” she said. “It happens.”
“You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you, Commander? But it doesn’t matter what you put in your report. Schwarzkopf has already made plans for us and our skipper. He’ll have us hauled in front of a court martial like he did you. No matter what you say. You don’t really think that you will have any kind of influence over him, do you? He thinks of you about as much as he thinks of us. Maybe even less.”
Star could not deny that he was absolutely correct. Schwarzkopf was going to do exactly what McBride had said. At this point there was no way around it anymore.
“I make you a counter-offer, Commander,” said McBride. “You let us go and we’ll rescue both, our crewmember and yours. We’ll say you did everything you could to try and stop us. You even attempted to take out our engines and force us to crash but in the end, we managed to slip away.”
“I like that version much better,” said Brin.
“Think about it,” said McBride. “What do you gain to win from our surrender? We might lose two of our people. Give us a chance to try and bring them back. We both know that Schwarzkopf is wrong on this one.”
If Star was being swayed by McBride’s argument she did a good job of hiding it. She firmly kept her ground, her facial expressions unreadable, her phaser rifle gripped firmly.
Nora did not appreciate the silence which had ensued. “There is no way we’re going to let you go,” she said resolutely. “There are only two ways in which this can end. You can surrender or we will take you down.”
“You’re welcome to try,” said Solly Brin.
McBride kept his eyes on his counterpart. Like most everyone on Bluefin he didn’t think much of Star and agreed with the notion that she should have stayed locked up for a long, long time. But he also thought he saw something else in her now. Perhaps it was whatever Nigel Bane had seen. Differently to the Bajoran and even Brin she wanted to avoid a confrontation at any cost. She had surprised him by offering them a way out. But now, after measuring up her firm voice and uncompromising posture he understood something else. She was not going to stand down. Perhaps because it wasn’t in her nature, perhaps because there was more at stake for her then her already tarnished reputation. But she was not going to let them go.
And McBride was not going to surrender.
Once he had realized this, it became unmistakably clear that there was no way to get out of this but with a fight.
A loud roar in the skies above caught everybody by surprise.
It bordered on a miracle that the sudden distraction was not used as an excuse for a preemptive strike on either side. Instead, discipline prevailed even while most eyes wandered upwards to find the source of the noise.
Nora Laas and Solly Brin were notable exceptions. They kept their eyes, and more significantly, their weapons trained on each other.
Three black, fixed-winged aircraft were ripping through the sky at super-sonic speeds. All three were massive, easily two times the size of the Starfleet runabout and the Border Service Stallion combined. They were flying in a tight formation and at a low attitude, possibly in order to avoid detection by radar or sensor systems.
“What are they?” asked McBride.
Star recognized them. “Military bomber planes.”
The Bluefin’s first officer glanced at Bralus, the Bolian pilot who stood nearby. “Their heading?”
The young man nodded to reaffirm McBride’s suspicions.
“Commander,” the Texan said, addressing the Trill. “These bombers are heading right for the location where we believe our crewmember is being held. What do you think the odds of that would be?”
But Star didn’t have to do the math. If Schwarzkopf had found out about the location, she wouldn’t have put it passed the man to provide the Tiaitan military with those coordinates. And the government would not think twice to try and reduce the New Light settlements to rubble, not only to achieve a military victory and possibly destroy the rebel leadership but also to ensure that the Starfleet officers would not live to tell of their newfound knowledge of Tiaita’s civil war.
“Schwarzkopf to away team.”
The voice came from Star’s combadge but now that the planes overhead had passed, their roar had been replaced once more with a tense quiet, allowing the admiral’s voice to be heard by most of the assembled Starfleet and Bluefin crewmembers.
Star kept her eyes on McBride, making no overt move to reply to the admiral.
“You know what’s going to happen here, Commander,” said McBride. “You know what will happen if we let those planes get to our people first.”
“Schwarzkopf to away team, respond.”
“How many lives are you willing to sacrifice for this mission?”
“Star, answer me!”
The Trill removed her right hand from her phaser rifle–making sure it remained steady and aimed squarely at her counterpart a few short meters away–and tapped her combadge. “This is Star, go ahead, sir.”
“About time, Commander. What kept you so long?” he asked in an impatient tone, making sure she understood that he didn’t appreciate the delay. “Never mind. What’s your situation? Have you managed to intercept Bluefin’s landing party?”
“We forced them to land on the surface, sir,” she said, never taking her eyes off McBride. “However they do not appear as if they are willing to surrender to us.”
“I couldn’t care less about their inclinations. If they do not stand down you have my permission to use whatever force is required to incapacitate them.”
She noticed that the Bluefin crew was tensing slightly upon overhearing the admiral. Whatever force she’d use, they would respond in kind.
“Am I making myself sufficiently clear, Commander?”
Star hesitated for only a moment. “There is another matter, sir, which might change the situation somewhat. We have just spotted at least three bomber aircraft heading towards the location where our people are being held. I believe it would be safe to assume –“
“Commander, your job is to stop and apprehend the landing party. That is your one and only concern right now. Everything else is irrelevant to your current objective.” Schwarzkopf was losing his patience, his rising tone, clear evidence of that.
“With respect, sir, may I speak to Captain Owens?” she asked, allowing her carefully maintained mask of self-confidence to slip for the first time since the mission had begun.
“Don’t worry about the Captain. I’m giving you a direct order and I expect you to follow it. What the hell is your problem?”
And there it was again. A direct order from a superior officer. It always appeared to come down to that. They all had their orders and in truth nobody wanted to follow them. McBride and his people had obviously already made that decision. Akinola knew there were going to be consequences for his actions but he had come to terms with that.
Tazla Star needed to follow her orders or her short comeback was doomed. Certainly Altee would try to protect her if she acted in concordance with his wishes but even he hadn’t been powerful enough to make a court martial disappear.
Star made her choice.
“Admiral, the interference is worse than we previously anticipated, you are breaking up.”
A furious Schwarzkopf practically shouted through the perfectly clear comlink. “Don’t you dare pull that kind of stunt on me –“
“I can no longer receive you, Admiral,” she interrupted.
Nora Laas allowed herself a quick sideward glance at the acting first officer, giving her a disbelieving glare.
“I am terminating the connection until we find a way around the interference. Star out,” she added and slapped her combadge again.
Then she eyed the equally surprised McBride. “Here’s what’s going to happen,” she said. “You will provide us with the exact coordinates of the place where our people are being kept. We’ll head there ourselves and attempt to extract them before the bombers can destroy their target.”
“We’re not just going to give you the coordinates,” replied Solly Brin.
“I’m giving you a choice,” said Star. “Unless you would prefer a battle right here, right now, risking more lives and wasting more time. If we’re going to do this, we’re doing this on my terms.”
The Orion’s eyes sparkled as if he was considering which option he personally preferred. Saving T’Ser was of course his priority but he had never been somebody to turn away from a good fight.
“We’re wasting time just debating this,” said Star and looked at McBride. “What’s it going to be?”
He nodded slowly. “Alright, but we’ll follow you.”
Star glanced at the crash landed Stallion. “If you can get her in the air again, that’s fine with me.”
“The only question remaining then,” said McBride. “Who’ll take the first step?”
It turned out to be Star. She lowered her rifle. “Major, have your people stand down.”
Wasco didn’t hesitate and within a moment the entire contingent had lowered their weapons. Everyone except Nora Laas.
Star shot her an impatient look. “Lieutenant, stand down.”
“You can’t be serious about this,” she said, not able to believe what had happened.
But Tazla Star was not in the mood. “Lieutenant, I gave you a direct order.”
She laughed at that without any humor. “An order? That’s rich, seeing they don’t seem to mean much anymore these days,” she said.
The Trill was about to say something else but then Nora lowered her phaser rifle, understanding perfectly that she had no real choice in the matter. It was not as if she could take the entire Border Service landing party by herself.
Star faced the Texan. “Your move.”
McBride looked at his people and their expressions had remained so focused on their potential enemy that they were mostly unreadable. Perhaps the only exception was Solly Brin who had an almost pleading look on his face. ‘Let’s take them down while we have the chance,’ he seemed to ask.
Dale McBride lowered his phaser carbine.
Brin shrugged his shoulders. “Would’ve been too easy anyway,” he mumbled and followed suit.
“Mister Bralus, give them the coordinates.”
The Bolian nodded, swung the phaser onto his back and removed a data padd from his belt. He made sure it contained the requested information and then very carefully stepped forward as if the short meters between the two parties had been booby trapped with landmines.
He moved far too slow for Star. She approached him with large, determined steps and snatched the padd right out of his hand. She looked over the data and then back at McBride. “Thanks. We’ll head out right away. Follow us if you can,” she said and turned to head back to the runabout, Nora and the Marines in tow.
McBride allowed himself to breathe for the first time in what had seemed like hours just before he indicated for his team to hightail it back into the Stallion.
* * *
This isn't the cliff-hanger challenge, you know. 
A very gutsy call on her part!
