Perservers, you say? I wonder what they have to do with it all in this universe. I'm sure we'll see soon enough.
The Star Eagle Adventures: UT10 - Civil War
- Thread starter CeJay
- Start date
05/10 – “Whoever Draws First Blood...” (Part 2)
A very short and succinct burst transmission from Intrepid had caught up Owens and Sandhurst on what had happened to the Orion, and also of her attempt, partially successful, of deploying so called rattrap torpedoes in an effort to slip away from her pursuers.
Owens had compartmentalized Orion’s fate for now as Eagle and Gibraltar caught up to the Bluefin, Sandhurst effectively cutting her off from escaping towards the outer boundary of the nebula, and Owens using Eagle almost like a plow, getting so close to the smaller ship that the rattrap maneuver was no longer viable.
The ensuing battle didn’t last long, and the two tactically superior ships made short work of her weapons and engines, leaving the border cutter effectively dead in the water.
It had been Owens’ next suggestion which Sandhurst had been uncomfortable with.
“To be honest I don’t see the point here, Michael,” he had said. “She’s disabled and not going anywhere. We can make certain they’re not getting their engines up and running again for hours, or tow her to the nearest Starbase.”
But Owens had shook his head. “Disabling her is no certainty. These Border Dogs are resourceful, they’ll find a way to get back on the road. And we don’t have the time to tractor her out of her. This is the best way to ensure they’ll be out of the picture for now.”
Sandhurst had needed some more convincing before he had agreed to Owens’ plan, and shortly thereafter both ships began transporting nearly fifty automated combat drones onto Bluefin via shuttles—transporters were not effective within the nebula—designed to scour each deck and stun every crewmember they came into contact with.
Only once the drones had reported that all resistance had been neutralized, did Eagle and Gibraltar send heavily armed security teams to deal with anyone who had somehow escaped the initial sweep, followed by medical teams to address any injuries that may have been sustained by the assault on either side.
So only thirty minutes after the engagement had begun, Michael Owens stood outside Bluefin’s main shuttle bay with a team of ten security officers, all equipped with helmets, body armor and phaser rifles.
Eagle’s team was met in short order by Sandhurst and his own security detail. “What do we have?” Sandhurst asked.
Owens indicated towards the heavy doors leading into the shuttle bay. “Ship’s secure except for this section. Main shuttle bay. We lost contact with three drones that were clearing the area.”
Sandhurst looked concerned. “Three? How many of Bluefin’s crew are unaccounted for?”
“Don’t know yet, we’re still waiting for final confirmation. Could be as many as four or five,” he said. “There is a secondary entrance in the next section and we’ve got all Jeffries tube access points sealed and secured. I suggest you move your team to the secondary entrance. We breach and clear on my signal.”
Sandhurst nodded and took his men to take position at the other entry point.
Shortly thereafter Owens gave the order.
The doors were manually pulled open before two men tossed at least four flashbang grenades into the large bay. Owens could hear that Sandhurst’s people were doing the same from their position.
Owens gave the sign and his security team secured their helmet visors which would protect them from the blinding light and the smoke the grenades had released and the ten-man unit moved in with their phasers at the ready.
The first thing Owens noticed were two drones which had been quite clearly disabled, and judging by their state, lying on the floor, one with its electrical innards exposed, the other one practically broken in two, they had been taken out with brute force.
There were also a number of Bluefin crewmembers littering the flight deck, those who had not been able to escape the drones before they had been taken out.
Two members of his team checked on each neutralized crewmember, making sure they were stunned before beginning to identifying them.
Owens could see Sandhurst’s team slowly entering the bay from the other entrance at the opposite end of the cavernous room.
Two large shuttlecraft, Stallions, were positions in take-off formation on the deck but seemed otherwise unpowered.
Owens indicated for four of his men to check the first shuttlecraft while the other one was closer to Sandhurst’s team, and was being cleared by his men.
“Contact!”
The shout was immediately followed by the sound of something or someone dropping onto the floor, and it was coming from inside the Stallion.
Owens and the remaining team whipped around to face the support craft, hearing more shouts and telltale sounds of a fight. Then phaser fire, so much of it, it lit up the interior of the shuttle in bright orange colors visible through the forward viewport.
Owens and another man quickly but carefully moved towards the entry ramp but by the time he got there, things had gotten quiet again.
He peeked inside only to find all four of his people on the floor, still breathing from what he could tell but all taken out of the fight. There was no sign of the attacker. Not until he heard something above him.
“The roof!” he said and quickly stepped back to aim his rifle.
His team opened fire again, apparently able to see something moving on top of the shuttle that he couldn’t make out from his vantage point.
He could hear it though, it was definitely someone big and heavy, judging by the noise, much heavier than it had any right to be considering how fast it was moving.
Then—an even louder thump and a startled cry.
Once Owens had managed to round the shuttle he found another of his men on the floor. Whatever had hit him had leaped right on top of him from the shuttle. He was out cold.
He whisked around to his remaining men. “Anyone see what did this?”
They were shaking their heads.
“All I saw was a red streak.”
Owens tapped his combadge. “Donald, whoever is still in here, I think they are heading your way,” he said quietly. “Try to cut them off while we flank them.”
“Copy that. Sandhurst out.”
The captain indicated towards his team again and to follow him in a spread-out formation, their weapons at tactical ready position, actively trying to locate the threats.
Phaser fire erupted once more, coming from Sandhurst’s position.
Owens signaled his team to pick up the pace, clearly their targets had moved rapidly to cross the bay.
Just before they reached the other team however, Owens saw something fast moving towards them from the corner of his eye.
Too late did he realize that it was a barrel, flying through the air.
“Hold your—“
But his order didn’t come fast enough. Two phaser blasts rang out, one of which hitting the bright yellow barrel dead-on.
Owens dove for cover just in time to see the barrel explode, the shockwave pushing him hard onto the floor.
Only once he had felt the heat of the blast dissipate did he look up again. There was no sign of their attacker but clearly the barrel had contained extremely volatile material which had filled much of the shuttle bay with a fine mist, creating a fog which made it almost impossible to see more than a few meters. What was clear as day however was that his team had been completely taken out by the shockwave.
"Carlos to Owens."
Owens tapped his combadge but kept his head down, crawling carefully over to the security officer nearest to him, who was lying on his back motionless. "Go ahead, Lieutenant."
"Are you alright, sir, we just registered what looked like an explosion at your location."
The downed officer, a female Bolian, was still breathing but was unconscious. He found the stabilizing, emergency hypo in the equipment pouch of her combat fatigues and promptly jammed it against her leg. “I’m fine, wish I could say the same for my team,” he said, keeping is voice as close to a whisper as possible and then moved on to his next fallen man, staying prone, and doing the same to him he had for the Bolian.
“I’m sending reinforcements to your location now. They should be with you in less than five minutes.”
“This is going to be over in five minutes,” he said. “I want all entrances secured, nobody gets out of here. If you lose contact with me, flood the entire section with anesthzine gas.”
“I don’t like it, sir.”
“Not worried about what you like or don’t like, Jose. Just tell me what I’m up against here. Have you been able to determine which crewmembers are unaccounted for?”
“Just one. A Master Chief Solly Brin. Orion male.”
“Let me guess, a red one?”
“Yes, sir.”
Owens had finished stabilizing his injured people and then spotted movement near the second Stallion and brought up his rifle. “Fantastic. You have your orders, Lieutenant, I expect you to follow them. Owens out.”
He crawled most of the way towards the shuttle and when he was certain that the still settling mist made it as difficult for him to see his enemy as the enemy seeing him, he stood slowly and made it quickly to the Stallion’s bow for cover.
Securing his rifle, he reached for his hand phaser instead and then very carefully rounded the ship’s nose with his sidearm ready to fire once he got a clear shot on whoever he thought he had spotted behind it.
“Woah, friendly,” Sandhurst said when he spotted Owens with his phaser pointed at him.
Owens secured his weapon. “Where’s your team?”
“You’re look at what’s left of it.”
Owens joined his fellow captain who sat on the floor with his back against the shuttle.
“Reinforcements?” Sandhurst asked.
Owens noticed that the other man had been in a fight, part of his uniform had been ripped, he was bleeding from his forehead and he had lost, among other things, his combadge.
“Five minutes out, but this entire section is going to get flooded with paralyzing gas before then.”
Sandhurst nodded in agreement.
“Just one man. An Orion.”
“That sounds about right.”
“You seem pretty calm about this,” said Owens.
Sandhurst shot him a sidelong glance. “I wasn’t quite honest when I said I was the last man left.”
Owens gave him a quizzical look.
He heard a loud thump, followed by the sounds of a fight. No words, just a furry of what had to be kicks and punches, being dealt and received at lighting pace.
Sandhurst and Owens stood carefully and approached the source of the battle sounds, weapons drawn.
Owens could see a large, red figure emerging from the fog. Flying towards him, in fact. Both men had to jump aside in order to avoid being squashed by the massive Orion who landed with such force, Owens thought he could feel the deck plates of the shuttle bay rattling under his feet.
Another man came flying out of the fog after him and instantly pounced on the Orion like a wild beast.
Owens couldn’t make out much, except that he was dressed in standard Starfleet combat fatigues which were in even worse shape than Sandhurst’s, the entire armored chest plate had been ripped away along with the fabric below. He was bleeding from too many wounds to count.
And yet he was still in the fight, viciously going after the much larger Orion, dealing significant damage up until the point Solly Brin managed to get back onto his feet and threw him so hard into the side of the Stallion, it left behind a visible dent.
Owens and Sandhurst raised their weapons and fired at the bald, red-skinned Orion and the combined phaser blasts pushed him backwards but he refused to go down.
Instead he roared with anger and once the blasts stopped, began to charge the two starship captains, roaring like a Mugato driven mad.
He didn’t get far. The other man came leaping down from the top of the Stallion—Owens had no idea at what point he had managed to climb it—sailing through the air with his fist already fully cocked, which then came down in full force against the Orion’s head.
Solly Brin finally collapsed.
The other man fell onto his hands and knees nearby, panting urgently, blood dripping all over the deck.
Owens cautiously approached Brin, keeping his phaser trained on the mountain of a man, he pushed against his shoulder with his boot. He was alive but he wasn’t getting up anytime soon.
Sandhurst was heading to tend to his officer.
“Don’t ever … make me do that again,” the man uttered between labored breaths and then collapsed onto the deck when his strength had finally left him.
“Gotta say, I like him,” said Owens, indicating towards the exhausted fighter.
“Yeah,” Sandhurst said with a smirk “Pava is useful to keep around.”
“He’s coming to now but I still would prefer moving him to sickbay.”
“Already noted, Doctor,” said Owens as he watched his chief medical officer, Doctor Ashley Wenera, stand back up after having knelt next to Joseph Akinola to apply a stimulant. Like the rest of his crew he had been stunned by Eagle’s and Gibraltar’s combined assault, but had been placed into his chair in Bluefin’s ready room.
“How’s the rest of his crew, Doctor?” said Sandhurst, the only other occupant besides two armed security guards standing watch by the doors.
She shot him a piercing glare. “Your robots did a fine job knocking everyone unconscious if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Any serious casualties?”
“A few broken bones and a concussion here or there from a few crewmembers fighting back or landing badly. Nothing we can’t fix. That Orion will need some work, he’ll be on his feet again but it’ll take a while. Some of his injuries were vicious.”
“Trust me, Doctor, he dished out just as much as he took. In fact, I’d say he dished out quite a bit more,” said Owens.
She nodded and looked at Sandhurst. “Yes, I saw your man before he was transported back to your sickbay. I’d say he’ll be out of commission at least as long.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” said Owens. “Sounds to me you have your work cut out for you. We’ll be in touch if your services are required any further in here.”
She uttered a sigh to this as she headed towards the doors. “This kind of thing? Not what I had in mind when I joined Starfleet.”
But Owens was no longer paying attention. Instead he was looking towards the white-bearded, Nigerian starship captain, slowly waking up again. Then he took note of the various handcrafted wooden ship models in the ready room. “Very nice craftsmanship, I have to say.”
“What the hell … do you want?” Akinola finally managed to say, with some difficulty. “And what have you done to my crew?”
“Your crew is fine, Captain,” said Sandhurst. “Well, mostly. They’ll be out for a little while, a few broken bones but that’s it.”
“Mister Brin gave us a little bit of trouble,” said Owens and then picked up one of the wooden models, a three-mast sail ship. “Is this the HMS Beagle?” He nodded to himself when he read the name of the ship on the small metal plate and then looked at Sandhurst who just stared back blankly. “Charles Darwin’s famous explorer,” he explained as he studied the fine details of the model. “I can see your interest in her, Captain, if I remember right she was eventually transferred to the Cost Guard.” He looked back up at the Border Service officer. “Once her best years were behind her, that is.”
“Is this why you have blatantly attacked my ship?” said Akinola, almost fully recovered by now. “To admire my models and insult me?”
Owens replaced the wooden vessel. “You know precisely why we attacked. You and the Orion were racing towards clear space to try and get a message back to Bolarus. We couldn’t let that happen.”
“And why not?” said Akinola. “Because you are planning an unprovoked attack. Do you really believe you are on the right side of this? After what you’ve done to my ship and crew?” he added, looking at Sandhurst first before focusing back on Owens and then shook his head. “I guess it doesn’t matter. If we weren’t able to get a message out, Orion did. Whatever it is you are up to, it won’t work.”
Owens couldn’t bear keeping his eyes on the other captain and apparently neither could Sandhurst.
Akinola seemed to understand, nodding slowly. “You stopped the Orion? And what, you pulled something like this off on her as well? I can’t imagine that went over well with Reihyn.”
The silence in the room was quickly becoming awkward.
Akinola stood. “What happened to the Orion?”
Owens didn’t respond.
“She was destroyed,” said Sandhurst.
“You goddamn bastards,” he said quietly. “Captain Reihyn was a good man and a friend of mine. He didn’t deserve that, and neither did his crew.”
“Destroying her wasn’t the plan,” said Sandhurst.
“Star,” said Akinola. “It was her, wasn’t it?”
The other two captains shot the man surprised glances but held their tongues.
“Yes, I know she was involved, we detected the Sacajawea in the nebula and had intelligence she might be lurking around here somewhere. Listen to me carefully, no matter our disagreements, you can’t trust that woman. I’ve met her once before. She is a ruthless, backstabber with loyalties to no one but herself. I bet she didn’t blink an eye before snuffing out a starship with a crew of a hundred people. If you find yourself having to trust her, you might as well dig your own graves right now, because you won’t make it out of this alive.”
“That’s a nice speech, Captain, but I don’t see how that will help your present situation,” said Owens.
“What is it you want from me, exactly?” said Akinola. “You have taken my ship, neutralized my crew and stopped any chance of warning Bolarus of your presence. What else do you want?”
Sandhurst took Owens by the arm and led him into the far corner of the ready room. “I have to say, I’ve been kind of wondering this myself. What are you trying to accomplish? Let’s just scuttle the ship and be on our way.”
But Owens shook his head. “Not yet, I think Akinola could be an ally?”
Sandhurst looked back at the glaring Border Service captain before shooting Owens a disbelieving look. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said. “After destroying Orion and boarding his ship? He looks like he’d rather be sucking the hard vacuum of space then help us.”
“Maybe.”
Sandhurst gave the other captain a piercing look that left no room for misinterpretation. “I don’t condone torture, Michael. I’m having a hard enough time reconciling what we did here, what Star did to Orion. I don’t need any more blood on my conscience.”
“And I’m not planning on adding any,” he said. “Look, I just need some time. And I need you to trust me on this.”
“Trust you? I don’t think so. I think Aubrey was right about you, I think you pulled strings with Leone to get to be on this mission. It’s bloody obvious Altee doesn’t want you here and I am not convinced you should be either,” he said, shaking his head. “No, I don’t think I can afford to trust you right now.”
“Fine, but you know the alternative. Tazla Star. You don’t want any more sleepless nights? She’s going to be a nightmare, Donald. What’s to say she won’t finish off Bluefin as well? You really want to run that risk? Give me a chance to prevent any more bloodshed.”
Sandhurst considered that for a moment and then slowly shook his head. “You know what? Sometimes I miss the Borg. At least back then you knew who your enemies were,” he said with a heavy, resigned sigh. “What do you need from me?”
“Just a little bit of time,” said Owens. “Head back towards the rendezvous and run some interference with Star. I’ll join you there as soon as I’m done here.”
“I know I’m going to regret this,” said Sandhurst just before he left the room.
Owens turned back towards Akinola.
“What’s next? The good cop, bad cop routine? That won’t work on me, I practically wrote the book on that one. Or maybe you’d rather hash this out the old fashioned way. Man-to-man. If so, the least you could do is get rid of your armed escort. Make this a fair fight.”
Owens smirked, glancing at the white Karate ghi hanging on the wall. “Something tells me it wouldn’t be all that fair.”
“What do you intend to do? Keep me hostage on my own ship?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. What you have to look forward to, if you are lucky, is for you and your crew to be court martialed for treason and spend the rest of your lives on a prison colony. Of course that’s only if Tazla Star, whose methods you are already quite familiar with, doesn’t get a hold of you first.”
Akinola laughed. “You are going to offer me a deal, is that it?”
Owens took a seat facing his desk. “I think we can help each other. And all I need you to do is to listen to what I have to say.”
A very short and succinct burst transmission from Intrepid had caught up Owens and Sandhurst on what had happened to the Orion, and also of her attempt, partially successful, of deploying so called rattrap torpedoes in an effort to slip away from her pursuers.
Owens had compartmentalized Orion’s fate for now as Eagle and Gibraltar caught up to the Bluefin, Sandhurst effectively cutting her off from escaping towards the outer boundary of the nebula, and Owens using Eagle almost like a plow, getting so close to the smaller ship that the rattrap maneuver was no longer viable.
The ensuing battle didn’t last long, and the two tactically superior ships made short work of her weapons and engines, leaving the border cutter effectively dead in the water.
It had been Owens’ next suggestion which Sandhurst had been uncomfortable with.
“To be honest I don’t see the point here, Michael,” he had said. “She’s disabled and not going anywhere. We can make certain they’re not getting their engines up and running again for hours, or tow her to the nearest Starbase.”
But Owens had shook his head. “Disabling her is no certainty. These Border Dogs are resourceful, they’ll find a way to get back on the road. And we don’t have the time to tractor her out of her. This is the best way to ensure they’ll be out of the picture for now.”
Sandhurst had needed some more convincing before he had agreed to Owens’ plan, and shortly thereafter both ships began transporting nearly fifty automated combat drones onto Bluefin via shuttles—transporters were not effective within the nebula—designed to scour each deck and stun every crewmember they came into contact with.
Only once the drones had reported that all resistance had been neutralized, did Eagle and Gibraltar send heavily armed security teams to deal with anyone who had somehow escaped the initial sweep, followed by medical teams to address any injuries that may have been sustained by the assault on either side.
So only thirty minutes after the engagement had begun, Michael Owens stood outside Bluefin’s main shuttle bay with a team of ten security officers, all equipped with helmets, body armor and phaser rifles.
Eagle’s team was met in short order by Sandhurst and his own security detail. “What do we have?” Sandhurst asked.
Owens indicated towards the heavy doors leading into the shuttle bay. “Ship’s secure except for this section. Main shuttle bay. We lost contact with three drones that were clearing the area.”
Sandhurst looked concerned. “Three? How many of Bluefin’s crew are unaccounted for?”
“Don’t know yet, we’re still waiting for final confirmation. Could be as many as four or five,” he said. “There is a secondary entrance in the next section and we’ve got all Jeffries tube access points sealed and secured. I suggest you move your team to the secondary entrance. We breach and clear on my signal.”
Sandhurst nodded and took his men to take position at the other entry point.
Shortly thereafter Owens gave the order.
The doors were manually pulled open before two men tossed at least four flashbang grenades into the large bay. Owens could hear that Sandhurst’s people were doing the same from their position.
Owens gave the sign and his security team secured their helmet visors which would protect them from the blinding light and the smoke the grenades had released and the ten-man unit moved in with their phasers at the ready.
The first thing Owens noticed were two drones which had been quite clearly disabled, and judging by their state, lying on the floor, one with its electrical innards exposed, the other one practically broken in two, they had been taken out with brute force.
There were also a number of Bluefin crewmembers littering the flight deck, those who had not been able to escape the drones before they had been taken out.
Two members of his team checked on each neutralized crewmember, making sure they were stunned before beginning to identifying them.
Owens could see Sandhurst’s team slowly entering the bay from the other entrance at the opposite end of the cavernous room.
Two large shuttlecraft, Stallions, were positions in take-off formation on the deck but seemed otherwise unpowered.
Owens indicated for four of his men to check the first shuttlecraft while the other one was closer to Sandhurst’s team, and was being cleared by his men.
“Contact!”
The shout was immediately followed by the sound of something or someone dropping onto the floor, and it was coming from inside the Stallion.
Owens and the remaining team whipped around to face the support craft, hearing more shouts and telltale sounds of a fight. Then phaser fire, so much of it, it lit up the interior of the shuttle in bright orange colors visible through the forward viewport.
Owens and another man quickly but carefully moved towards the entry ramp but by the time he got there, things had gotten quiet again.
He peeked inside only to find all four of his people on the floor, still breathing from what he could tell but all taken out of the fight. There was no sign of the attacker. Not until he heard something above him.
“The roof!” he said and quickly stepped back to aim his rifle.
His team opened fire again, apparently able to see something moving on top of the shuttle that he couldn’t make out from his vantage point.
He could hear it though, it was definitely someone big and heavy, judging by the noise, much heavier than it had any right to be considering how fast it was moving.
Then—an even louder thump and a startled cry.
Once Owens had managed to round the shuttle he found another of his men on the floor. Whatever had hit him had leaped right on top of him from the shuttle. He was out cold.
He whisked around to his remaining men. “Anyone see what did this?”
They were shaking their heads.
“All I saw was a red streak.”
Owens tapped his combadge. “Donald, whoever is still in here, I think they are heading your way,” he said quietly. “Try to cut them off while we flank them.”
“Copy that. Sandhurst out.”
The captain indicated towards his team again and to follow him in a spread-out formation, their weapons at tactical ready position, actively trying to locate the threats.
Phaser fire erupted once more, coming from Sandhurst’s position.
Owens signaled his team to pick up the pace, clearly their targets had moved rapidly to cross the bay.
Just before they reached the other team however, Owens saw something fast moving towards them from the corner of his eye.
Too late did he realize that it was a barrel, flying through the air.
“Hold your—“
But his order didn’t come fast enough. Two phaser blasts rang out, one of which hitting the bright yellow barrel dead-on.
Owens dove for cover just in time to see the barrel explode, the shockwave pushing him hard onto the floor.
Only once he had felt the heat of the blast dissipate did he look up again. There was no sign of their attacker but clearly the barrel had contained extremely volatile material which had filled much of the shuttle bay with a fine mist, creating a fog which made it almost impossible to see more than a few meters. What was clear as day however was that his team had been completely taken out by the shockwave.
"Carlos to Owens."
Owens tapped his combadge but kept his head down, crawling carefully over to the security officer nearest to him, who was lying on his back motionless. "Go ahead, Lieutenant."
"Are you alright, sir, we just registered what looked like an explosion at your location."
The downed officer, a female Bolian, was still breathing but was unconscious. He found the stabilizing, emergency hypo in the equipment pouch of her combat fatigues and promptly jammed it against her leg. “I’m fine, wish I could say the same for my team,” he said, keeping is voice as close to a whisper as possible and then moved on to his next fallen man, staying prone, and doing the same to him he had for the Bolian.
“I’m sending reinforcements to your location now. They should be with you in less than five minutes.”
“This is going to be over in five minutes,” he said. “I want all entrances secured, nobody gets out of here. If you lose contact with me, flood the entire section with anesthzine gas.”
“I don’t like it, sir.”
“Not worried about what you like or don’t like, Jose. Just tell me what I’m up against here. Have you been able to determine which crewmembers are unaccounted for?”
“Just one. A Master Chief Solly Brin. Orion male.”
“Let me guess, a red one?”
“Yes, sir.”
Owens had finished stabilizing his injured people and then spotted movement near the second Stallion and brought up his rifle. “Fantastic. You have your orders, Lieutenant, I expect you to follow them. Owens out.”
He crawled most of the way towards the shuttle and when he was certain that the still settling mist made it as difficult for him to see his enemy as the enemy seeing him, he stood slowly and made it quickly to the Stallion’s bow for cover.
Securing his rifle, he reached for his hand phaser instead and then very carefully rounded the ship’s nose with his sidearm ready to fire once he got a clear shot on whoever he thought he had spotted behind it.
“Woah, friendly,” Sandhurst said when he spotted Owens with his phaser pointed at him.
Owens secured his weapon. “Where’s your team?”
“You’re look at what’s left of it.”
Owens joined his fellow captain who sat on the floor with his back against the shuttle.
“Reinforcements?” Sandhurst asked.
Owens noticed that the other man had been in a fight, part of his uniform had been ripped, he was bleeding from his forehead and he had lost, among other things, his combadge.
“Five minutes out, but this entire section is going to get flooded with paralyzing gas before then.”
Sandhurst nodded in agreement.
“Just one man. An Orion.”
“That sounds about right.”
“You seem pretty calm about this,” said Owens.
Sandhurst shot him a sidelong glance. “I wasn’t quite honest when I said I was the last man left.”
Owens gave him a quizzical look.
He heard a loud thump, followed by the sounds of a fight. No words, just a furry of what had to be kicks and punches, being dealt and received at lighting pace.
Sandhurst and Owens stood carefully and approached the source of the battle sounds, weapons drawn.
Owens could see a large, red figure emerging from the fog. Flying towards him, in fact. Both men had to jump aside in order to avoid being squashed by the massive Orion who landed with such force, Owens thought he could feel the deck plates of the shuttle bay rattling under his feet.
Another man came flying out of the fog after him and instantly pounced on the Orion like a wild beast.
Owens couldn’t make out much, except that he was dressed in standard Starfleet combat fatigues which were in even worse shape than Sandhurst’s, the entire armored chest plate had been ripped away along with the fabric below. He was bleeding from too many wounds to count.
And yet he was still in the fight, viciously going after the much larger Orion, dealing significant damage up until the point Solly Brin managed to get back onto his feet and threw him so hard into the side of the Stallion, it left behind a visible dent.
Owens and Sandhurst raised their weapons and fired at the bald, red-skinned Orion and the combined phaser blasts pushed him backwards but he refused to go down.
Instead he roared with anger and once the blasts stopped, began to charge the two starship captains, roaring like a Mugato driven mad.
He didn’t get far. The other man came leaping down from the top of the Stallion—Owens had no idea at what point he had managed to climb it—sailing through the air with his fist already fully cocked, which then came down in full force against the Orion’s head.
Solly Brin finally collapsed.
The other man fell onto his hands and knees nearby, panting urgently, blood dripping all over the deck.
Owens cautiously approached Brin, keeping his phaser trained on the mountain of a man, he pushed against his shoulder with his boot. He was alive but he wasn’t getting up anytime soon.
Sandhurst was heading to tend to his officer.
“Don’t ever … make me do that again,” the man uttered between labored breaths and then collapsed onto the deck when his strength had finally left him.
“Gotta say, I like him,” said Owens, indicating towards the exhausted fighter.
“Yeah,” Sandhurst said with a smirk “Pava is useful to keep around.”
* * *
“He’s coming to now but I still would prefer moving him to sickbay.”
“Already noted, Doctor,” said Owens as he watched his chief medical officer, Doctor Ashley Wenera, stand back up after having knelt next to Joseph Akinola to apply a stimulant. Like the rest of his crew he had been stunned by Eagle’s and Gibraltar’s combined assault, but had been placed into his chair in Bluefin’s ready room.
“How’s the rest of his crew, Doctor?” said Sandhurst, the only other occupant besides two armed security guards standing watch by the doors.
She shot him a piercing glare. “Your robots did a fine job knocking everyone unconscious if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Any serious casualties?”
“A few broken bones and a concussion here or there from a few crewmembers fighting back or landing badly. Nothing we can’t fix. That Orion will need some work, he’ll be on his feet again but it’ll take a while. Some of his injuries were vicious.”
“Trust me, Doctor, he dished out just as much as he took. In fact, I’d say he dished out quite a bit more,” said Owens.
She nodded and looked at Sandhurst. “Yes, I saw your man before he was transported back to your sickbay. I’d say he’ll be out of commission at least as long.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” said Owens. “Sounds to me you have your work cut out for you. We’ll be in touch if your services are required any further in here.”
She uttered a sigh to this as she headed towards the doors. “This kind of thing? Not what I had in mind when I joined Starfleet.”
But Owens was no longer paying attention. Instead he was looking towards the white-bearded, Nigerian starship captain, slowly waking up again. Then he took note of the various handcrafted wooden ship models in the ready room. “Very nice craftsmanship, I have to say.”
“What the hell … do you want?” Akinola finally managed to say, with some difficulty. “And what have you done to my crew?”
“Your crew is fine, Captain,” said Sandhurst. “Well, mostly. They’ll be out for a little while, a few broken bones but that’s it.”
“Mister Brin gave us a little bit of trouble,” said Owens and then picked up one of the wooden models, a three-mast sail ship. “Is this the HMS Beagle?” He nodded to himself when he read the name of the ship on the small metal plate and then looked at Sandhurst who just stared back blankly. “Charles Darwin’s famous explorer,” he explained as he studied the fine details of the model. “I can see your interest in her, Captain, if I remember right she was eventually transferred to the Cost Guard.” He looked back up at the Border Service officer. “Once her best years were behind her, that is.”
“Is this why you have blatantly attacked my ship?” said Akinola, almost fully recovered by now. “To admire my models and insult me?”
Owens replaced the wooden vessel. “You know precisely why we attacked. You and the Orion were racing towards clear space to try and get a message back to Bolarus. We couldn’t let that happen.”
“And why not?” said Akinola. “Because you are planning an unprovoked attack. Do you really believe you are on the right side of this? After what you’ve done to my ship and crew?” he added, looking at Sandhurst first before focusing back on Owens and then shook his head. “I guess it doesn’t matter. If we weren’t able to get a message out, Orion did. Whatever it is you are up to, it won’t work.”
Owens couldn’t bear keeping his eyes on the other captain and apparently neither could Sandhurst.
Akinola seemed to understand, nodding slowly. “You stopped the Orion? And what, you pulled something like this off on her as well? I can’t imagine that went over well with Reihyn.”
The silence in the room was quickly becoming awkward.
Akinola stood. “What happened to the Orion?”
Owens didn’t respond.
“She was destroyed,” said Sandhurst.
“You goddamn bastards,” he said quietly. “Captain Reihyn was a good man and a friend of mine. He didn’t deserve that, and neither did his crew.”
“Destroying her wasn’t the plan,” said Sandhurst.
“Star,” said Akinola. “It was her, wasn’t it?”
The other two captains shot the man surprised glances but held their tongues.
“Yes, I know she was involved, we detected the Sacajawea in the nebula and had intelligence she might be lurking around here somewhere. Listen to me carefully, no matter our disagreements, you can’t trust that woman. I’ve met her once before. She is a ruthless, backstabber with loyalties to no one but herself. I bet she didn’t blink an eye before snuffing out a starship with a crew of a hundred people. If you find yourself having to trust her, you might as well dig your own graves right now, because you won’t make it out of this alive.”
“That’s a nice speech, Captain, but I don’t see how that will help your present situation,” said Owens.
“What is it you want from me, exactly?” said Akinola. “You have taken my ship, neutralized my crew and stopped any chance of warning Bolarus of your presence. What else do you want?”
Sandhurst took Owens by the arm and led him into the far corner of the ready room. “I have to say, I’ve been kind of wondering this myself. What are you trying to accomplish? Let’s just scuttle the ship and be on our way.”
But Owens shook his head. “Not yet, I think Akinola could be an ally?”
Sandhurst looked back at the glaring Border Service captain before shooting Owens a disbelieving look. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said. “After destroying Orion and boarding his ship? He looks like he’d rather be sucking the hard vacuum of space then help us.”
“Maybe.”
Sandhurst gave the other captain a piercing look that left no room for misinterpretation. “I don’t condone torture, Michael. I’m having a hard enough time reconciling what we did here, what Star did to Orion. I don’t need any more blood on my conscience.”
“And I’m not planning on adding any,” he said. “Look, I just need some time. And I need you to trust me on this.”
“Trust you? I don’t think so. I think Aubrey was right about you, I think you pulled strings with Leone to get to be on this mission. It’s bloody obvious Altee doesn’t want you here and I am not convinced you should be either,” he said, shaking his head. “No, I don’t think I can afford to trust you right now.”
“Fine, but you know the alternative. Tazla Star. You don’t want any more sleepless nights? She’s going to be a nightmare, Donald. What’s to say she won’t finish off Bluefin as well? You really want to run that risk? Give me a chance to prevent any more bloodshed.”
Sandhurst considered that for a moment and then slowly shook his head. “You know what? Sometimes I miss the Borg. At least back then you knew who your enemies were,” he said with a heavy, resigned sigh. “What do you need from me?”
“Just a little bit of time,” said Owens. “Head back towards the rendezvous and run some interference with Star. I’ll join you there as soon as I’m done here.”
“I know I’m going to regret this,” said Sandhurst just before he left the room.
Owens turned back towards Akinola.
“What’s next? The good cop, bad cop routine? That won’t work on me, I practically wrote the book on that one. Or maybe you’d rather hash this out the old fashioned way. Man-to-man. If so, the least you could do is get rid of your armed escort. Make this a fair fight.”
Owens smirked, glancing at the white Karate ghi hanging on the wall. “Something tells me it wouldn’t be all that fair.”
“What do you intend to do? Keep me hostage on my own ship?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. What you have to look forward to, if you are lucky, is for you and your crew to be court martialed for treason and spend the rest of your lives on a prison colony. Of course that’s only if Tazla Star, whose methods you are already quite familiar with, doesn’t get a hold of you first.”
Akinola laughed. “You are going to offer me a deal, is that it?”
Owens took a seat facing his desk. “I think we can help each other. And all I need you to do is to listen to what I have to say.”
Loved the fight between Solly and Pava. I actually winced while reading it. I once wrote a short-story about an encounter between the two but never posted it. Now it looks like Owens may be planning some triangulation but trust is a rare and Sandhurst is obviously skeptical. Still wondering as to Star's game . . . is Akinola right, and she's in just for herself? Since this is a different universe/Akinola, can't be sure as to his ultimated loyalties (aside from his crew) but he's always been a good judge of character. Owens has a hard-sell in convincing Akinola to accept a deal but who knows? Maybe Akinola will be open to the idea.
06/10 – “Et Tu, Brute?”
Because of unreliable communications and spotty sensor coverage within the Mutara Nebula, the plan had been for the four ships of the task force to reconvene at their original rendezvous location once the threat the Orion and the Bluefin had posed to their mission had been neutralized.
And yet, things had not gone according to plan and Sandhurst found only Intrepid had returned to their rallying point as Gibraltar approached. Eagle he knew of course was still dealing with Bluefin. He did not know the location of Sacajawea, Tazla Star’s seemingly elusive ship.
Jason Aubrey had asked to come aboard as soon as the two starships had been close enough and with transporters not a valid option, the two large ships had docked to each other instead, a maneuver which had become increasingly uncommon in the modern era but which both ships performed flawlessly in any case.
Sandhurst had met Aubrey outside Gibraltar’s starboard docking port.
“What happened out there?” he asked almost immediately.
But Aubrey shook his head. “All the wrong things. Is there somewhere we can talk in private?”
Sandhurst lead his fellow captain to his ready room adjacent to the bridge, where Aubrey took the proffered chair opposite the desk while Sandhurst sat behind it. “The Orion? Was there any alternative to destroying her?”
“Not if you ask Star,” he said without even having to consider the question. “I’m not so sure.” He shook his head. “I understand what is at stake here but damn it, this is not what we are about. These people are Starfleet officers, just like us. And we’re killing them because of what? Philosophical differences?”
“This thing has gotten way out of hand,” said Sandhurst. “It has been for a while. It’s becoming a full blown war.”
“Which is just what we need after the Borg and with the Nyberrites waiting in the wings, ready to pounce and swallow us up whole the first chance they get.”
“If you believe the politicians, that’s exactly what will happen if the Guardians are not kept in check.”
Aubrey shot him a despairing look. “Never put much stock into politicians.” He said and then switched gears. “What happened with Bluefin? I take it things went better than at our end?”
“If so, only marginally. But at least he ship was still in one piece and her crew alive when I left them.”
“Wait a minute, you are telling me you left Owens alone with her? The man clearly has an agenda.”
“Trust me it wasn’t my idea. But if I had to choose between Owens and Star, well it’s not much of a choice. Talking about Star, where is she? She’s not somebody I want to lose track of.”
He shook his head. “I wish I knew. We were heading back to the rendezvous point when we lost sensor contact with her.”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to avoid,” he said and then glanced towards the ceiling. “Sandhurst to bridge.”
“Ramirez here, sir.”
“Liana, I want you to keep an eye out for Sacajawea. Apparently she’s MIA. And see if you can get a burst transmission to Owens, making him aware that she might be coming after Bluefin next.”
“Yes, sir. Do you want us to engage the SMA again?”
“Not yet. Just keep it to conventional sensors for now. Sandhurst out.”
Aubrey was back on his feet, slowly pacing the room. “Without it you won’t find her.”
“I know. But there is still a chance that using it again might alert Bolarus. I don’t want to blow this mission now, not after the price we’ve already paid.”
Aubrey stopped and stepped closer to the desk. “We might not have a choice.”
“What do you mean?”
Aubrey placed a padd on Sandhurst’s desk which he had brought with him. “There’s another reason I needed to talk to you in private. Shortly after the Orion’s destruction, my operations officer picked something up from the Sacajawea which looked like a burst transmission. Except it wasn’t to any ships in the task force or to Starfleet Command.”
“Who then?” asked Sandhurst as he looked over the padd.
“No idea. In fact, I wouldn’t be able to tell you with one hundred percent certainty it was a transmission at all, not in this nebula. It might have been nothing more than background radiation brought on by high concentrations of ionized gasses but my ops manager, who by the way doesn’t miss much, thinks there is a good chance it might have been a transmission. So I had her do a little bit of digging.”
Sandhurst looked up with concern. “You hacked Sacajawea?”
“I told you, she’s good. She didn’t get much but what she found is troubling.”
He glanced back at the padd. “These looks like Nyberrite schematics.”
Aubrey nodded.
“You think she’s working for them?”
“Would you put it past her?”
“I guess not but you haven’t got much here. This is all circumstantial. A possible transmission which might be background radiation and some data on what could be Nyberrite designs.”
“Add to that her behavior and the way she pops up and disappears on a regular basis and I would call that enough evidence to at least be concerned. I know it wouldn’t hold up in a court martial but there is a way we can be certain.”
Sandhurst seemed to know where Aubrey was going and immediately shook his head. “I’m not going to use the SMA on Sacajawea.”
“It would give us the answers we need and we’d know for sure what she is up to.”
“Yes. It might also give away our position. Besides she would know that they had been probed. That will not be easy to explain if we find nothing.”
“Worth the risk, Captain. Better than allowing a potential traitor to undermine the entire mission. I say we—“
“Bridge to Sandhurst.”
“Go ahead, Commander.”
“The Sacajawea is hailing us. She just reappeared on sensors a few seconds ago. Captain Star wants to talk to you straight away.”
The two captains exchanged looks.
“Understood, Commander. We’re on our way, Sandhurst out.” He stood and headed straight for the doors leading the bridge, Aubrey following close behind.
Liana Ramirez was back at the tactical board by the time the two captains entered the bridge.
Sandhurst nodded to her. “Put her on screen.”
Not a moment later the Trill woman’s face appeared on the viewer, clearly agitated once more. “Captain Sandhurst, you mind telling me where Eagle is?”
Sandhurst pulled at the hem of his uniform jacket. “She suffered some minor damage to her impulse engines when engaging the Bluefin. Nothing serious. She should be joining us shortly.”
Star smirked with zero evidence of any kind of amusement. “Is that so? Because as it turns out she is no longer at her last reported position. As a matter of fact, neither is Bluefin.”
“As I said it was minor. She might be on her way back here as we speak.”
“I’m not sure I believe that.”
“That, Captain, is entirely your concern, not mine.”
The two starship commanders stared at each other for a moment, neither willing to add to their sharp words.
It was Aubrey who broke the silence. “This ship is equipped with a Sub-Quantum Mass Array, as you already know. I suggest we make use of it. We’ll locate both ships and if we keep the scan intensity low enough, the energy surge shouldn’t register beyond the nebula.”
Star and Sandhurst continued to stare daggers at each other a moment longer until the Trill began to massage her forehead in apparent frustration. “I suppose we don’t have a choice. Just make it quick and ensure the setting is low enough to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Star out.”
Her face disappeared from the screen to be replaced by her ship positioned nearby.
Aubrey shot Sandhurst a sidelong look. “Never gonna get a better chance.”
He nodded slowly and both men moved to join Ramirez at her station. “Liana, configure the SMA for a wide area scan at fifty percent energy yield. And I want a separate, narrow-band beam focused on the Sacajawea.”
The petite Hispanic woman gave her captain a surprised glance. “Sir?”
“Just make it happen.”
“Aye, sir,” she said and worked her console, setting up the powerful sensor array to the specifications given. It took her just a few seconds to set it up. “Ready on your mark.”
“Do it.”
“Engaging the array.”
The sensor pulse activated with an audible low rumble and the viewscreen showed a dark blue energy wave penetrating into the nebula.
“Getting the data now,” said Ramirez.
Aubrey looked at Sandhurst. “With your permission, I’ll see what we got from Sacajawea.”
Sandhurst nodded. “Liana, focus on the wide area scan.”
Aubrey went to work beside her while Ramirez gave her report. “I cannot locate the Eagle but I have the Bluefin. She is traveling on a course of one-zero mark eight-seven,” she said and looked at her captain. “That’s straight towards the Bolarus system.”
“Son of a bitch,” said Sandhurst.
“I’ve got her transmission logs,” said Aubrey. “No doubt about it, she sent an encrypted message two point six hours ago to an unidentified relay station outside Federation space.” He looked up as well. “And her databanks are full of encrypted files which appear to be Nyberrite in origin.”
“We’re being hailed again by—“
But Ramirez wasn’t able to finish her sentence before Star forced herself back onto Gibraltar’s main view screen. “What do you think you are doing?”
Aubrey took that one. “Trying to find out whose side you’re really on, Captain. And from what I can see, there are some serious question marks relating to your loyalty.”
“I am done with this, and I’m done with you,” she said through gritted teeth. “There is a reason I work alone. You are compromising the mission and Owens is either an incompetent fool or in league with the enemy. You are both to stand down. I will finish this on my own.” She didn’t bother signing off this time. On the view screen Sacajawea quickly turned and pulled away at high impulse.
“She is following Bluefin’s course,” said Ramirez.
Aubrey turned to face his fellow captain. “We let her go, there’ll only be more death and bloodshed, I can practically guarantee it. We do nothing and this mission will end up being one massive, unmitigated disaster for all sides involved.”
Sandhurst needed a moment to fully appreciate the changed circumstances but ultimately he began to nod. “Return to your ship. We’ll go after her.”
Aubrey turned and headed towards the turbolift.
“Jason?”
He stopped short to look back at Sandhurst.
“This mission already is a disaster.”
Because of unreliable communications and spotty sensor coverage within the Mutara Nebula, the plan had been for the four ships of the task force to reconvene at their original rendezvous location once the threat the Orion and the Bluefin had posed to their mission had been neutralized.
And yet, things had not gone according to plan and Sandhurst found only Intrepid had returned to their rallying point as Gibraltar approached. Eagle he knew of course was still dealing with Bluefin. He did not know the location of Sacajawea, Tazla Star’s seemingly elusive ship.
Jason Aubrey had asked to come aboard as soon as the two starships had been close enough and with transporters not a valid option, the two large ships had docked to each other instead, a maneuver which had become increasingly uncommon in the modern era but which both ships performed flawlessly in any case.
Sandhurst had met Aubrey outside Gibraltar’s starboard docking port.
“What happened out there?” he asked almost immediately.
But Aubrey shook his head. “All the wrong things. Is there somewhere we can talk in private?”
Sandhurst lead his fellow captain to his ready room adjacent to the bridge, where Aubrey took the proffered chair opposite the desk while Sandhurst sat behind it. “The Orion? Was there any alternative to destroying her?”
“Not if you ask Star,” he said without even having to consider the question. “I’m not so sure.” He shook his head. “I understand what is at stake here but damn it, this is not what we are about. These people are Starfleet officers, just like us. And we’re killing them because of what? Philosophical differences?”
“This thing has gotten way out of hand,” said Sandhurst. “It has been for a while. It’s becoming a full blown war.”
“Which is just what we need after the Borg and with the Nyberrites waiting in the wings, ready to pounce and swallow us up whole the first chance they get.”
“If you believe the politicians, that’s exactly what will happen if the Guardians are not kept in check.”
Aubrey shot him a despairing look. “Never put much stock into politicians.” He said and then switched gears. “What happened with Bluefin? I take it things went better than at our end?”
“If so, only marginally. But at least he ship was still in one piece and her crew alive when I left them.”
“Wait a minute, you are telling me you left Owens alone with her? The man clearly has an agenda.”
“Trust me it wasn’t my idea. But if I had to choose between Owens and Star, well it’s not much of a choice. Talking about Star, where is she? She’s not somebody I want to lose track of.”
He shook his head. “I wish I knew. We were heading back to the rendezvous point when we lost sensor contact with her.”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to avoid,” he said and then glanced towards the ceiling. “Sandhurst to bridge.”
“Ramirez here, sir.”
“Liana, I want you to keep an eye out for Sacajawea. Apparently she’s MIA. And see if you can get a burst transmission to Owens, making him aware that she might be coming after Bluefin next.”
“Yes, sir. Do you want us to engage the SMA again?”
“Not yet. Just keep it to conventional sensors for now. Sandhurst out.”
Aubrey was back on his feet, slowly pacing the room. “Without it you won’t find her.”
“I know. But there is still a chance that using it again might alert Bolarus. I don’t want to blow this mission now, not after the price we’ve already paid.”
Aubrey stopped and stepped closer to the desk. “We might not have a choice.”
“What do you mean?”
Aubrey placed a padd on Sandhurst’s desk which he had brought with him. “There’s another reason I needed to talk to you in private. Shortly after the Orion’s destruction, my operations officer picked something up from the Sacajawea which looked like a burst transmission. Except it wasn’t to any ships in the task force or to Starfleet Command.”
“Who then?” asked Sandhurst as he looked over the padd.
“No idea. In fact, I wouldn’t be able to tell you with one hundred percent certainty it was a transmission at all, not in this nebula. It might have been nothing more than background radiation brought on by high concentrations of ionized gasses but my ops manager, who by the way doesn’t miss much, thinks there is a good chance it might have been a transmission. So I had her do a little bit of digging.”
Sandhurst looked up with concern. “You hacked Sacajawea?”
“I told you, she’s good. She didn’t get much but what she found is troubling.”
He glanced back at the padd. “These looks like Nyberrite schematics.”
Aubrey nodded.
“You think she’s working for them?”
“Would you put it past her?”
“I guess not but you haven’t got much here. This is all circumstantial. A possible transmission which might be background radiation and some data on what could be Nyberrite designs.”
“Add to that her behavior and the way she pops up and disappears on a regular basis and I would call that enough evidence to at least be concerned. I know it wouldn’t hold up in a court martial but there is a way we can be certain.”
Sandhurst seemed to know where Aubrey was going and immediately shook his head. “I’m not going to use the SMA on Sacajawea.”
“It would give us the answers we need and we’d know for sure what she is up to.”
“Yes. It might also give away our position. Besides she would know that they had been probed. That will not be easy to explain if we find nothing.”
“Worth the risk, Captain. Better than allowing a potential traitor to undermine the entire mission. I say we—“
“Bridge to Sandhurst.”
“Go ahead, Commander.”
“The Sacajawea is hailing us. She just reappeared on sensors a few seconds ago. Captain Star wants to talk to you straight away.”
The two captains exchanged looks.
“Understood, Commander. We’re on our way, Sandhurst out.” He stood and headed straight for the doors leading the bridge, Aubrey following close behind.
Liana Ramirez was back at the tactical board by the time the two captains entered the bridge.
Sandhurst nodded to her. “Put her on screen.”
Not a moment later the Trill woman’s face appeared on the viewer, clearly agitated once more. “Captain Sandhurst, you mind telling me where Eagle is?”
Sandhurst pulled at the hem of his uniform jacket. “She suffered some minor damage to her impulse engines when engaging the Bluefin. Nothing serious. She should be joining us shortly.”
Star smirked with zero evidence of any kind of amusement. “Is that so? Because as it turns out she is no longer at her last reported position. As a matter of fact, neither is Bluefin.”
“As I said it was minor. She might be on her way back here as we speak.”
“I’m not sure I believe that.”
“That, Captain, is entirely your concern, not mine.”
The two starship commanders stared at each other for a moment, neither willing to add to their sharp words.
It was Aubrey who broke the silence. “This ship is equipped with a Sub-Quantum Mass Array, as you already know. I suggest we make use of it. We’ll locate both ships and if we keep the scan intensity low enough, the energy surge shouldn’t register beyond the nebula.”
Star and Sandhurst continued to stare daggers at each other a moment longer until the Trill began to massage her forehead in apparent frustration. “I suppose we don’t have a choice. Just make it quick and ensure the setting is low enough to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Star out.”
Her face disappeared from the screen to be replaced by her ship positioned nearby.
Aubrey shot Sandhurst a sidelong look. “Never gonna get a better chance.”
He nodded slowly and both men moved to join Ramirez at her station. “Liana, configure the SMA for a wide area scan at fifty percent energy yield. And I want a separate, narrow-band beam focused on the Sacajawea.”
The petite Hispanic woman gave her captain a surprised glance. “Sir?”
“Just make it happen.”
“Aye, sir,” she said and worked her console, setting up the powerful sensor array to the specifications given. It took her just a few seconds to set it up. “Ready on your mark.”
“Do it.”
“Engaging the array.”
The sensor pulse activated with an audible low rumble and the viewscreen showed a dark blue energy wave penetrating into the nebula.
“Getting the data now,” said Ramirez.
Aubrey looked at Sandhurst. “With your permission, I’ll see what we got from Sacajawea.”
Sandhurst nodded. “Liana, focus on the wide area scan.”
Aubrey went to work beside her while Ramirez gave her report. “I cannot locate the Eagle but I have the Bluefin. She is traveling on a course of one-zero mark eight-seven,” she said and looked at her captain. “That’s straight towards the Bolarus system.”
“Son of a bitch,” said Sandhurst.
“I’ve got her transmission logs,” said Aubrey. “No doubt about it, she sent an encrypted message two point six hours ago to an unidentified relay station outside Federation space.” He looked up as well. “And her databanks are full of encrypted files which appear to be Nyberrite in origin.”
“We’re being hailed again by—“
But Ramirez wasn’t able to finish her sentence before Star forced herself back onto Gibraltar’s main view screen. “What do you think you are doing?”
Aubrey took that one. “Trying to find out whose side you’re really on, Captain. And from what I can see, there are some serious question marks relating to your loyalty.”
“I am done with this, and I’m done with you,” she said through gritted teeth. “There is a reason I work alone. You are compromising the mission and Owens is either an incompetent fool or in league with the enemy. You are both to stand down. I will finish this on my own.” She didn’t bother signing off this time. On the view screen Sacajawea quickly turned and pulled away at high impulse.
“She is following Bluefin’s course,” said Ramirez.
Aubrey turned to face his fellow captain. “We let her go, there’ll only be more death and bloodshed, I can practically guarantee it. We do nothing and this mission will end up being one massive, unmitigated disaster for all sides involved.”
Sandhurst needed a moment to fully appreciate the changed circumstances but ultimately he began to nod. “Return to your ship. We’ll go after her.”
Aubrey turned and headed towards the turbolift.
“Jason?”
He stopped short to look back at Sandhurst.
“This mission already is a disaster.”
"This mission already is a disaster."
Truer word, etc. etc. Things are definitely spinning out of control. Captain Star seems to be a dangerous loose cannon. Is she trying to start a war? I wonder who is pulling her strings.
Wonder what the scan revealed about the Sacajawea? And what happened to the Eagle? Things are getting strange.
Truer word, etc. etc. Things are definitely spinning out of control. Captain Star seems to be a dangerous loose cannon. Is she trying to start a war? I wonder who is pulling her strings.
Wonder what the scan revealed about the Sacajawea? And what happened to the Eagle? Things are getting strange.
07/10 – “We’re In Uncharted Territory Now.”
Joseph Akinola entered the wardroom of his own ship and found Michael Owens sipping a mug of freshly made coffee.
“This is amazing,” Owens said. “I didn’t even realize how much better the real thing tastes and smells compared to the replicated version.”
Akinola said nothing.
“I was hoping to get a Danish with this but I can’t find a replicator.”
“That’s because there isn’t one.”
He nodded understandingly. “On another deck?”
Akinola shook his head.
Owens frowned. “Are you telling me things are so bad with the Guardians, you had to cut back on replicators?”
“Personal choice.”
“Yours or your crews?”
Akinola fixed the other man with a glare which clearly communicated his waning patience with this conversation. “I don’t believe part of our deal included you commenting on my ship’s amenities.”
Owens grinned and took another sip. “No, I guess I’m just the curious sort. And I have to say, this was all almost worth it just for the coffee.”
“Well, the coffee might be all you’ll be getting out of this.”
Owens set down his mug upon hearing this, frowning.
“We’ve arrived at Panea but there’s no sign of this secret complex you claim to exist there. And if it is hidden, as I think it would be, it will be almost impossible to locate without inviting the wrong kind of attention.”
“We won’t need to look for it,” said Owens and slid a padd across the desk.
Akinola picked it up and his eyes widened slightly upon reading its content. “This is pretty detailed information on a facility which is supposed to be secret.
“I guess all the good spies must have stayed on our side,” said Owens with another simper but then quickly took on a more serious demeanor. “In any case, that should be enough to beam me directly into the facility. Have you detected any other ships in the area?”
Akinola looked up from the padd. “Agamemnon is patrolling the system and is close by, Cuffe is in a standard orbit around Bolarus at present and Heracles is supposedly in the vicinity as well but we don’t have a confirmed position for her.”
“Have you had any problems or challenges from the other ships?”
Akinola shook his head. “No. But Orion will be overdue in about twenty-five minutes. Reiyhn isn’t the kind of man—“ he stopped himself. “Wasn’t the kind of man to miss a report. It will cause suspicion.”
Owens looked annoyed. “You were supposed to report in for both ships. Let them believe that everything is fine.”
Akinola glared at the other captain again. “Understand, there is a limit as to what I’m willing to do here. I will not fire on another Guardian vessel and I sure as hell will not pretend that everything is fine when you have in fact destroyed and killed the Orion.”
Owens tried to interject that he had not been responsible for the destruction of the other ship but Akinola did not give him the chance. “I agreed to this on very specific terms and only because the intelligence you have shown me about this Alpha Weapon looks compelling enough to have me worried about what its development could mean to all of us. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to take unnecessary risks or betray my own people. I don’t care how many of my officers you are holding hostage on your ship.”
“That’s overly dramatic, don’t you think? They are enjoying their stay in our guest quarters, not in the brig.”
He laughed derisively. “Under heavy guard and behind force fields. Call it what you want, Captain, but the truth is you are keeping them hostage.”
“They are insurance. I have given you my word that no harm will come to them. You are not the only one taking risks, I’m sticking my neck out pretty damn far here. And let’s face facts, we have both betrayed our respective people. At least you have been given the gift of plausible deniability.”
“Yes, how very gracious of you, Captain.”
Owens sat his coffee aside. “Since you are not willing to contact your people, we don’t have much time until we raise alarm bells. I take it I can still count on you to fulfill the rest of the plan.”
He nodded. “We’ll beam you into the facility, alone and unarmed. You destroy the prototype and return with your dear, estranged brother, and we take you back to your ship where you will release my people. And everyone lives happily ever after. Or something vaguely to that effect.”
Owens gave the other made a sharp nod, deciding to ignore the sarcasm.
“And what exactly makes you so certain he will listen to you and destroy his own prototype? You said it yourself, you haven’t exactly parted on the best of terms.”
“He is still my brother and no matter how long it has been, I know he will listen to me,” he said and stood. “Let’s get going, there’s no time to waste.”
Akinola had been right, the intelligence available to the facility was surprisingly accurate. In fact it had allowed Bluefin to circumvent most security measures and beam him directly into the laboratory level of the complex without tripping any alarms. The central part of the facility had been too well shielded against direct beam-ins, and he had been deposited into one of the outlying corridors instead.
And while Owens had agreed on beaming down unarmed, he had been able to keep with him a concealed type-I phaser, barely the size of a matchbox.
The facility was well lit, with wide and bright corridors, painted uniformly white which offered few places to hide. Thankfully he spotted no personnel at all, it appeared as if his brother and his colleagues had kept their team very small. Another aspect the intelligence he had been given that seemed to have proven right.
It wasn’t until he checked the third room that he ran into another person. It wasn’t his brother and yet the man was certainly no stranger.
“Jarik,” Owens hissed at the man who had his back turned to him, after he had made sure they were alone.
The tall, dark-skinned Vulcan turned to look at Owens. His eyes widened in surprise. “Michael?”
“Long time.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” he said, sounding rather emotional for what appeared to be a man of Vulcan heritage.
“What do you think? I’m looking for my brother.”
Jarik looked around for a moment, as if considering his options.
Owens followed his glance towards a com-panel and produced his phaser, pointing it in his general direction. “I’d rather not use this, not on a man I once considered as a close friend. Of course that was a long time ago.”
Jarik looked back at Owens, seeing the weapon but saying nothing.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw that you are working with Matthew. We both know you’re no scientist. You are bureaucrat, even back at the Academy you were always more interested in the theory instead of actually putting anything into practice. So mind telling me how you ended up here? Working for the Guardians of all people?”
He offered a very little, very un-Vulcan like smirk. “That’s a long story. One better left for another time.”
Owens nodded. “Suits me. I’m not here for you. Where is he?”
“Are you here alone?”
“Of course not, I have a ship in orbit.”
“What ship?”
Owens was beginning to grow tired. “Listen, I don’t have time for twenty questions. I know the Guardians have vessels operating in the area, protecting this very facility. I’m on the clock here, just tell me where Matt is.”
“Is there anyone else down here with you?” he said, ignoring Michael’s growing annoyance.
“No. Now, can you take me to my brother or do I have to stun you and look for him myself?”
“What do you intend to do once you find him?” he said, now sounding as calm as any other Vulcan would be in any given situation.
Owens raised the phaser a little higher. “You really want to do this?
Jarik shook his head, clearly suppressing a sigh. “Follow me,” he said and then quickly turned towards another door.
“Slow down. I might be in a hurry, but I have no desire of walking into a trap.
Jarik got the message and slowed his pace as he led him through a set of doors and down another corridor which looked indistinguishable to the others Owens had already seen.
He led him into another lab, filled with machinery and computer displays, and his brother, working at one of them.
“Matt,” Jarik said, “there is somebody here to talk to you.”
He sighed heavily without turning. “Tell her that the project is classified. Strictly need to know and she doesn’t need to know. I am getting pretty sick of repeating—“ he stopped after having turned and realized who had stepped into his lab. “Michael?”
“Matt,” said Owens looking at his brother, noting that he hadn’t aged much since he had seen him last a few years ago. He also didn’t miss that he looked well, enthusiastic and full of energy, not the gloomy and borderline depressed man he had been the last time they had spoken in person.
He quickly shook his head. “You can’t be here.”
“Well, nice seeing you too.”
Matthew looked at Jarik, aiming him a clearly surprised look, before glancing back at his brother. “How are you here?”
“Does it really matter?”
“Seeing that this is a secret facility, yes. Yes, it does.”
Owens took a step closer. “Do you really think you can work on a project this big, this dangerous and it wouldn’t raise a few eyebrows. We know about what you are up to and Starfleet—our Starfleet—is determined to stop this. By any means necessary.”
“What does that mean?”
“What do you think it means? Destroy it if they have to. And to be honest, I think that is a pretty damn good idea.”
This clearly terrified him and he quickly shook his head, becoming more animate. “No, I won’t allow it.”
“You won’t have a choice in the matter.”
“This is madness,” he said, beginning to pace. “And so goddamned typical. Here’s something the admirals and the politicians don’t understand and their first instinct is to destroy it. Destroy it because they are scared by it. I have worked too long and too hard on this to let ignorant minds determine the future of what we have done here.”
“Oh please, stop it with the self-righteous indignation already…” he stopped talking when he realized that, without him noticing, Jarik had slipped out of the room. He quickly made his way towards the exit, trying to locate him again.
“Mark my words, Mike, I won’t let them destroy it. I’ve been here before. Years ago when we first approached Starfleet—before the Schism—to practically beg them to give us the resources we needed to make this a reality. They shut us down then, just like they are trying to shut us down now,” he said and shook his head again. “But we are so close. The prototype—“
“Will you give it a rest for a moment?” Owens said sharply. “Where did Jarik go?”
“What?”
He shot him a piercing glare. “Jarik. Where did he go?”
But Matthew responded with nothing more than an empty look. Then his eyes opened wider.
Owens whipped back around only to see a phaser cone inches from his face.
“Well, well, well, just look at what the le-matya has dragged in.”
The phaser was wielded by another face intimately familiar to Michael Owens, however one that he had really hoped to avoid seeing up close again, regardless how attractive her dark features still were, even after all those years.
He slowly backtracked from Amaya Donners and the phaser in her hand, but not before she plucked his own cricket-sized weapon out of his hand.
“I keep telling him to leave the trash outside and yet he never, ever listens.”
“Hello, Maya.”
“You made a real dumb move coming here alone, you know that?”
“Who says I’m alone?”
As if one cue, Jarik appeared again, entering the room, walking straight passed Donners who kept her phaser trained on the intruder. Owens fixed his former friend and Academy roommate with a poisonous glare.
“Look at that, it’s almost like a class reunion, isn’t it?” said Donners. “I’d say all of us having made pretty good decisions over the years which led us to this point. Well all of us, except for you, Michael. Then again, making good decisions has nvever exactly been your strong suit.”
“Let’s not make this personal,” Owens said.
Donners laughed. “I don’t see how things couldn’t be any more personal. You’ve come all the way out here to rescue your poor brother from our evil clutches in what clearly is not a sanctioned mission. Tell me how many strings did you have to pull to get this far? Name of the old man still carrying a lot of weight, huh?”
Owens glanced at the three people in the room, one of which holding him at gunpoint. His brother seemed distraught, as if unable to decide between family loyalty and his dedication to his life’s work. Jarik was unreadable, but as far as Owens was concerned, he had already revealed his hand.
“Matt, listen to me,” said Owens, keeping his eyes on Donners and the phaser. “You are on the wrong side of this but you have been too focused on your work to realize that what you are doing here could spell doom for all of us. No matter if you want to keep the peace or chase some sort of phantom dream of rebuilding what we once had. If you don’t stop this and come with me, you’ll bring this all crashing down on us like the fragile house of cards it already is. Everything we’ve fought so hard for to rebuild after the Borg will have been for nothing.”
“I don’t even know what you are talking about,” said Matthew.
Donners simply snickered. “You were always good with the speeches, Michael. Must be what I thought I once saw it you. But you are dead awful at reading a crowd. Told you that you were going to get what’s coming to you eventually,” she said, closing in slowly.
Matthew took a step closer. “Wait, what are you doing?
“Getting rid of a problem, what do you think?”
This caused Michael some amusement, even as he took another step back, realizing that he was quickly running out of room. “She’s got a major grudge against me, don’t you know? Revenge really doesn’t suit you, Maya. It makes you look ugly.”
Matthew shook his head. “Don’t hurt him. He’s still my brother.”
But Donners wasn’t listening, raising the weapon higher as if to take aim, her eyes cold as ice.
That’s when Owens spotted the third man of Matthew’s research team entering the room, clearly drawn here by the commotion. “What the hell is going on here?” the gray-haired Westren Frobisher barked.
“We have an intruder,” said Jarik.
The hawkish features of Frobisher took in Michael Owens and his eyes widened in alarm. “Get rid of him.”
“My thinking exactly,” said Donners.
“No!” Matthew rushed Donners in panic, distracting her just long enough to allow Owens to make a move.
Donners fired the phaser but the shot went wide, singeing the white wall behind Michael but missing him entirely.
He jumped her and the force of the tackle pushed them both over a table before they went crashing down onto the floor, taking padds and other computer equipment along with them.
Donners lost hold of her weapon and it went skittering across the floor until it disappeared underneath a few cabinets.
Owens won the short struggle against Donners, who seemed dazed from the impact. Not wasting any time, he jumped back onto his feet.
Frobisher was on him in seconds, trying to pin him down but the scientist was no match for the well-trained Starfleet captain who easily shrugged him off, sending him flying against the far wall where he collapsed with a groan.
Jarik was next but he didn’t attack, instead he raised his palms towards Owens. “Wait, just listen to me.”
But Owens was in no mood. He sucker punched the Vulcan with such force, he went down in a heap.
He turned to his brother who had been looking on with wide-open eyes as chaos had erupted in his lab. “Alright let’s get out of here.”
“What, no,” he said, shaking his head emphatically. “I told you, I’m not leaving my work behind.”
“You cannot be serious. Matt, they’ve brought in somebody else to come after you and your prototype. And she won’t hesitate to destroy it and everyone in her way. You have seen how easy it was for me to get here, she won’t be far behind. I’m not going to let you throw away your life for a super-weapon which deserves to be wiped off the face of the galaxy.”
He shot him a befuddled look. “Super-weapon, what are you talking about?”
“Your damned dark-matter device. Big Betty. You even called it after your first love.”
He shook his head again. “Big Betty isn’t a weapon.”
“What?”
“It’s a transporter.”
Owens didn’t understand and he didn’t have time to catch up as Matthew shoved him aside hard. “Watch out.”
It was just in time to avoid a phaser blast coming from Donners who was picking herself off the floor again and had apparently re-located the phaser she had taken from Owens earlier.
Michael grabbed hold of his brother’s arm and dragged him out of the room and down the corridor. But Matthew was not going along willing, offering resistance and eventually freeing himself again. “Stop it, I told you, I’m not going with you.”
“Goddammit, Matt, you are supposed to be the smart one. Think this through. Something else is going on here and while you stay here, you remain in the crosshairs. I’m not going to let you die for this. I made a promise to dad that I wouldn’t let you get hurt.”
Matthew sneered. “Is that it? A promise to the old man, to protect his estranged son? Well, you won’t need to worry about that anymore, will you?”
Owens fought hard to keep his anger in check but failed. “The least you can do is honor his memory. He’s been trying to reconcile with you over the last years but you continuously rebuffed him. Going so far as joining his enemies. You broke his heart, Matt. He couldn’t deal with it.”
He uttered a little derisive laugh. “Right, so you blame me for his death, is that it? Why are you even here, Mike?”
“Because I care about family.”
The two men stared at each other with growing fury threatening to be set free.
Another phaser blast hitting close to Michael’s head and adding another large scorch mark to a shiny white wall prompted them back into action as they scrambled down the corridor together.
“Stop running like the coward that you are,” Donners shouted from further down the hallway, following the two brothers.
Owens pushed Matthew around a corner.
“Boy, she’s got murder in her eyes,” Matthew said with seemingly misplaced humor. “Tell me, is there anyone in your life you haven’t managed to tick off?”
“I think I might have turned my last allies against me today.”
“Get out of here, Mike,” he said.
“Not without you.”
“We’re not going to make it far with her chasing us. No doubt she has already called for reinforcements. I can buy you some time and you can try to live to fight another day.”
“I’m not going to let you risk your life—“
“She won’t kill me, it’s you she’s after. And whatever else is going on here, I trust you to figure it out and put a stop to it,” he placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry about, dad. I know we had our differences, and I still think he tried to drive a wedge between us, but that doesn’t mean I’m not sorry he’s gone. But most of all I’m sorry we allowed him to pull us apart.”
Before Owens could say anything else, Matthew turned and disappeared around the corner to run interference.
“Dammit, Matt,” he hissed but realizing he had no other options, he turned the other way, racing towards the extraction point.
He felt his combadge vibrate once he had left behind the shielded part of the complex, alerting him that he was clear for a beam out. He quickly tapped it. “Owens to Akinola. One to beam up.”
But there was no response.
“Owens to Akinola, come in, dammit.”
Nothing.
He continued on, trying to get further away from the shielded parts of the complex, hoping that it would reduce any inference which may prevent Bluefin to get a lock on his position. “Akinola, get me out of here now.”
He stopped in his tracks when Amaya Donners came around a bend and walked right into his path with a wide smirk, clearly having anticipated his destination and cut him off. “Don’t tell me your friends abandoned you. That’s such a common thread for you one would think you’d be used to it by now.”
Owens began to backtrack again, raising his hands slowly while Donners pointed the phaser at him once more. “And maybe you start tiring of playing the spurned lover. How about that?”
“I guess we all have our roles to play. Yours though, ends now.”
A very familiar feeling brought a little grin to his face. “Maybe next time,” he said as felt his body being dematerialized. He could see her indignation even through the haze of the transporter effect, saw the phaser blast which harmlessly passed through his body which was no longer there.
It didn’t stop him of course to grab his chest where the blast had been aimed the moment he had fully rematerialized, relieved not find any injury at all.
Only then did he take note of Bluefin’s transporter room and the female Vulcan officer there to receive him. He completely ignore her and rushed right passed her and towards the bridge.
He had stayed mostly out of sight since he had returned command to Akinola and his crew, after all she was still, essentially an enemy vessel, but he no longer cared about staying inconspicuous as he burst onto the bridge.
“Next time, don’t cut it so damn close,” he barked at Akinola who was getting out of his chair.
The other captain clearly didn’t appreciate his tone; on his own bridge no less. “I don’t foresee there being a next time.”
A quick glance towards the view screen revealed that they were no longer in orbit around Panea. “What are you doing? We’re not done here.”
“Oh yes, we are.”
“We had an agreement,” Owens fumed, ignoring the startled looks of the bridge crew. “It was me and my brother.”
“The agreement was to take you to Panea and bring you back,” said Akinola, matching his intensity, if not his volume. “Not my problem that you came back from the surface alone. If you prefer, we can leave you behind,” he added and then entered a few commands into the armrest controls of his chair. “Of course that would mean you would have to deal with them.”
The view screen switched to an aft view to show Panea as well as two starships coming into view. Agamemnon and Cuffe. It didn’t take long at all for both vessels to begin pursuing Bluefin.
“Looks like they figured it out. The ruse is up, Captain,” said Akinola.
“Get us back to Eagle at maximum speed.”
Akinola glared at the other man for a brief moment, obviously hating being told what to do. He considered his options for only a moment before he slowly nodded to his helmsman.
“We’re not going to outrun those ships,” said Akinola. “So I hope you have some sort of contingency plan in mind because if not, we are both going to hang for this.”
“Sir, we have additional ships now reading on sensors,” said the Vulcan officer who had follow Owens from the transporter room and had taken her station at ops.
“More of ours?” asked Akinola.
The view screen switched back to a forward view to display two ships on an intercept course.
Owens recognized them immediately. Intrepid and Gibraltar were coming in fast.
“This is going to get ugly.”
Joseph Akinola entered the wardroom of his own ship and found Michael Owens sipping a mug of freshly made coffee.
“This is amazing,” Owens said. “I didn’t even realize how much better the real thing tastes and smells compared to the replicated version.”
Akinola said nothing.
“I was hoping to get a Danish with this but I can’t find a replicator.”
“That’s because there isn’t one.”
He nodded understandingly. “On another deck?”
Akinola shook his head.
Owens frowned. “Are you telling me things are so bad with the Guardians, you had to cut back on replicators?”
“Personal choice.”
“Yours or your crews?”
Akinola fixed the other man with a glare which clearly communicated his waning patience with this conversation. “I don’t believe part of our deal included you commenting on my ship’s amenities.”
Owens grinned and took another sip. “No, I guess I’m just the curious sort. And I have to say, this was all almost worth it just for the coffee.”
“Well, the coffee might be all you’ll be getting out of this.”
Owens set down his mug upon hearing this, frowning.
“We’ve arrived at Panea but there’s no sign of this secret complex you claim to exist there. And if it is hidden, as I think it would be, it will be almost impossible to locate without inviting the wrong kind of attention.”
“We won’t need to look for it,” said Owens and slid a padd across the desk.
Akinola picked it up and his eyes widened slightly upon reading its content. “This is pretty detailed information on a facility which is supposed to be secret.
“I guess all the good spies must have stayed on our side,” said Owens with another simper but then quickly took on a more serious demeanor. “In any case, that should be enough to beam me directly into the facility. Have you detected any other ships in the area?”
Akinola looked up from the padd. “Agamemnon is patrolling the system and is close by, Cuffe is in a standard orbit around Bolarus at present and Heracles is supposedly in the vicinity as well but we don’t have a confirmed position for her.”
“Have you had any problems or challenges from the other ships?”
Akinola shook his head. “No. But Orion will be overdue in about twenty-five minutes. Reiyhn isn’t the kind of man—“ he stopped himself. “Wasn’t the kind of man to miss a report. It will cause suspicion.”
Owens looked annoyed. “You were supposed to report in for both ships. Let them believe that everything is fine.”
Akinola glared at the other captain again. “Understand, there is a limit as to what I’m willing to do here. I will not fire on another Guardian vessel and I sure as hell will not pretend that everything is fine when you have in fact destroyed and killed the Orion.”
Owens tried to interject that he had not been responsible for the destruction of the other ship but Akinola did not give him the chance. “I agreed to this on very specific terms and only because the intelligence you have shown me about this Alpha Weapon looks compelling enough to have me worried about what its development could mean to all of us. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to take unnecessary risks or betray my own people. I don’t care how many of my officers you are holding hostage on your ship.”
“That’s overly dramatic, don’t you think? They are enjoying their stay in our guest quarters, not in the brig.”
He laughed derisively. “Under heavy guard and behind force fields. Call it what you want, Captain, but the truth is you are keeping them hostage.”
“They are insurance. I have given you my word that no harm will come to them. You are not the only one taking risks, I’m sticking my neck out pretty damn far here. And let’s face facts, we have both betrayed our respective people. At least you have been given the gift of plausible deniability.”
“Yes, how very gracious of you, Captain.”
Owens sat his coffee aside. “Since you are not willing to contact your people, we don’t have much time until we raise alarm bells. I take it I can still count on you to fulfill the rest of the plan.”
He nodded. “We’ll beam you into the facility, alone and unarmed. You destroy the prototype and return with your dear, estranged brother, and we take you back to your ship where you will release my people. And everyone lives happily ever after. Or something vaguely to that effect.”
Owens gave the other made a sharp nod, deciding to ignore the sarcasm.
“And what exactly makes you so certain he will listen to you and destroy his own prototype? You said it yourself, you haven’t exactly parted on the best of terms.”
“He is still my brother and no matter how long it has been, I know he will listen to me,” he said and stood. “Let’s get going, there’s no time to waste.”
* * *
Akinola had been right, the intelligence available to the facility was surprisingly accurate. In fact it had allowed Bluefin to circumvent most security measures and beam him directly into the laboratory level of the complex without tripping any alarms. The central part of the facility had been too well shielded against direct beam-ins, and he had been deposited into one of the outlying corridors instead.
And while Owens had agreed on beaming down unarmed, he had been able to keep with him a concealed type-I phaser, barely the size of a matchbox.
The facility was well lit, with wide and bright corridors, painted uniformly white which offered few places to hide. Thankfully he spotted no personnel at all, it appeared as if his brother and his colleagues had kept their team very small. Another aspect the intelligence he had been given that seemed to have proven right.
It wasn’t until he checked the third room that he ran into another person. It wasn’t his brother and yet the man was certainly no stranger.
“Jarik,” Owens hissed at the man who had his back turned to him, after he had made sure they were alone.
The tall, dark-skinned Vulcan turned to look at Owens. His eyes widened in surprise. “Michael?”
“Long time.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” he said, sounding rather emotional for what appeared to be a man of Vulcan heritage.
“What do you think? I’m looking for my brother.”
Jarik looked around for a moment, as if considering his options.
Owens followed his glance towards a com-panel and produced his phaser, pointing it in his general direction. “I’d rather not use this, not on a man I once considered as a close friend. Of course that was a long time ago.”
Jarik looked back at Owens, seeing the weapon but saying nothing.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw that you are working with Matthew. We both know you’re no scientist. You are bureaucrat, even back at the Academy you were always more interested in the theory instead of actually putting anything into practice. So mind telling me how you ended up here? Working for the Guardians of all people?”
He offered a very little, very un-Vulcan like smirk. “That’s a long story. One better left for another time.”
Owens nodded. “Suits me. I’m not here for you. Where is he?”
“Are you here alone?”
“Of course not, I have a ship in orbit.”
“What ship?”
Owens was beginning to grow tired. “Listen, I don’t have time for twenty questions. I know the Guardians have vessels operating in the area, protecting this very facility. I’m on the clock here, just tell me where Matt is.”
“Is there anyone else down here with you?” he said, ignoring Michael’s growing annoyance.
“No. Now, can you take me to my brother or do I have to stun you and look for him myself?”
“What do you intend to do once you find him?” he said, now sounding as calm as any other Vulcan would be in any given situation.
Owens raised the phaser a little higher. “You really want to do this?
Jarik shook his head, clearly suppressing a sigh. “Follow me,” he said and then quickly turned towards another door.
“Slow down. I might be in a hurry, but I have no desire of walking into a trap.
Jarik got the message and slowed his pace as he led him through a set of doors and down another corridor which looked indistinguishable to the others Owens had already seen.
He led him into another lab, filled with machinery and computer displays, and his brother, working at one of them.
“Matt,” Jarik said, “there is somebody here to talk to you.”
He sighed heavily without turning. “Tell her that the project is classified. Strictly need to know and she doesn’t need to know. I am getting pretty sick of repeating—“ he stopped after having turned and realized who had stepped into his lab. “Michael?”
“Matt,” said Owens looking at his brother, noting that he hadn’t aged much since he had seen him last a few years ago. He also didn’t miss that he looked well, enthusiastic and full of energy, not the gloomy and borderline depressed man he had been the last time they had spoken in person.
He quickly shook his head. “You can’t be here.”
“Well, nice seeing you too.”
Matthew looked at Jarik, aiming him a clearly surprised look, before glancing back at his brother. “How are you here?”
“Does it really matter?”
“Seeing that this is a secret facility, yes. Yes, it does.”
Owens took a step closer. “Do you really think you can work on a project this big, this dangerous and it wouldn’t raise a few eyebrows. We know about what you are up to and Starfleet—our Starfleet—is determined to stop this. By any means necessary.”
“What does that mean?”
“What do you think it means? Destroy it if they have to. And to be honest, I think that is a pretty damn good idea.”
This clearly terrified him and he quickly shook his head, becoming more animate. “No, I won’t allow it.”
“You won’t have a choice in the matter.”
“This is madness,” he said, beginning to pace. “And so goddamned typical. Here’s something the admirals and the politicians don’t understand and their first instinct is to destroy it. Destroy it because they are scared by it. I have worked too long and too hard on this to let ignorant minds determine the future of what we have done here.”
“Oh please, stop it with the self-righteous indignation already…” he stopped talking when he realized that, without him noticing, Jarik had slipped out of the room. He quickly made his way towards the exit, trying to locate him again.
“Mark my words, Mike, I won’t let them destroy it. I’ve been here before. Years ago when we first approached Starfleet—before the Schism—to practically beg them to give us the resources we needed to make this a reality. They shut us down then, just like they are trying to shut us down now,” he said and shook his head again. “But we are so close. The prototype—“
“Will you give it a rest for a moment?” Owens said sharply. “Where did Jarik go?”
“What?”
He shot him a piercing glare. “Jarik. Where did he go?”
But Matthew responded with nothing more than an empty look. Then his eyes opened wider.
Owens whipped back around only to see a phaser cone inches from his face.
“Well, well, well, just look at what the le-matya has dragged in.”
The phaser was wielded by another face intimately familiar to Michael Owens, however one that he had really hoped to avoid seeing up close again, regardless how attractive her dark features still were, even after all those years.
He slowly backtracked from Amaya Donners and the phaser in her hand, but not before she plucked his own cricket-sized weapon out of his hand.
“I keep telling him to leave the trash outside and yet he never, ever listens.”
“Hello, Maya.”
“You made a real dumb move coming here alone, you know that?”
“Who says I’m alone?”
As if one cue, Jarik appeared again, entering the room, walking straight passed Donners who kept her phaser trained on the intruder. Owens fixed his former friend and Academy roommate with a poisonous glare.
“Look at that, it’s almost like a class reunion, isn’t it?” said Donners. “I’d say all of us having made pretty good decisions over the years which led us to this point. Well all of us, except for you, Michael. Then again, making good decisions has nvever exactly been your strong suit.”
“Let’s not make this personal,” Owens said.
Donners laughed. “I don’t see how things couldn’t be any more personal. You’ve come all the way out here to rescue your poor brother from our evil clutches in what clearly is not a sanctioned mission. Tell me how many strings did you have to pull to get this far? Name of the old man still carrying a lot of weight, huh?”
Owens glanced at the three people in the room, one of which holding him at gunpoint. His brother seemed distraught, as if unable to decide between family loyalty and his dedication to his life’s work. Jarik was unreadable, but as far as Owens was concerned, he had already revealed his hand.
“Matt, listen to me,” said Owens, keeping his eyes on Donners and the phaser. “You are on the wrong side of this but you have been too focused on your work to realize that what you are doing here could spell doom for all of us. No matter if you want to keep the peace or chase some sort of phantom dream of rebuilding what we once had. If you don’t stop this and come with me, you’ll bring this all crashing down on us like the fragile house of cards it already is. Everything we’ve fought so hard for to rebuild after the Borg will have been for nothing.”
“I don’t even know what you are talking about,” said Matthew.
Donners simply snickered. “You were always good with the speeches, Michael. Must be what I thought I once saw it you. But you are dead awful at reading a crowd. Told you that you were going to get what’s coming to you eventually,” she said, closing in slowly.
Matthew took a step closer. “Wait, what are you doing?
“Getting rid of a problem, what do you think?”
This caused Michael some amusement, even as he took another step back, realizing that he was quickly running out of room. “She’s got a major grudge against me, don’t you know? Revenge really doesn’t suit you, Maya. It makes you look ugly.”
Matthew shook his head. “Don’t hurt him. He’s still my brother.”
But Donners wasn’t listening, raising the weapon higher as if to take aim, her eyes cold as ice.
That’s when Owens spotted the third man of Matthew’s research team entering the room, clearly drawn here by the commotion. “What the hell is going on here?” the gray-haired Westren Frobisher barked.
“We have an intruder,” said Jarik.
The hawkish features of Frobisher took in Michael Owens and his eyes widened in alarm. “Get rid of him.”
“My thinking exactly,” said Donners.
“No!” Matthew rushed Donners in panic, distracting her just long enough to allow Owens to make a move.
Donners fired the phaser but the shot went wide, singeing the white wall behind Michael but missing him entirely.
He jumped her and the force of the tackle pushed them both over a table before they went crashing down onto the floor, taking padds and other computer equipment along with them.
Donners lost hold of her weapon and it went skittering across the floor until it disappeared underneath a few cabinets.
Owens won the short struggle against Donners, who seemed dazed from the impact. Not wasting any time, he jumped back onto his feet.
Frobisher was on him in seconds, trying to pin him down but the scientist was no match for the well-trained Starfleet captain who easily shrugged him off, sending him flying against the far wall where he collapsed with a groan.
Jarik was next but he didn’t attack, instead he raised his palms towards Owens. “Wait, just listen to me.”
But Owens was in no mood. He sucker punched the Vulcan with such force, he went down in a heap.
He turned to his brother who had been looking on with wide-open eyes as chaos had erupted in his lab. “Alright let’s get out of here.”
“What, no,” he said, shaking his head emphatically. “I told you, I’m not leaving my work behind.”
“You cannot be serious. Matt, they’ve brought in somebody else to come after you and your prototype. And she won’t hesitate to destroy it and everyone in her way. You have seen how easy it was for me to get here, she won’t be far behind. I’m not going to let you throw away your life for a super-weapon which deserves to be wiped off the face of the galaxy.”
He shot him a befuddled look. “Super-weapon, what are you talking about?”
“Your damned dark-matter device. Big Betty. You even called it after your first love.”
He shook his head again. “Big Betty isn’t a weapon.”
“What?”
“It’s a transporter.”
Owens didn’t understand and he didn’t have time to catch up as Matthew shoved him aside hard. “Watch out.”
It was just in time to avoid a phaser blast coming from Donners who was picking herself off the floor again and had apparently re-located the phaser she had taken from Owens earlier.
Michael grabbed hold of his brother’s arm and dragged him out of the room and down the corridor. But Matthew was not going along willing, offering resistance and eventually freeing himself again. “Stop it, I told you, I’m not going with you.”
“Goddammit, Matt, you are supposed to be the smart one. Think this through. Something else is going on here and while you stay here, you remain in the crosshairs. I’m not going to let you die for this. I made a promise to dad that I wouldn’t let you get hurt.”
Matthew sneered. “Is that it? A promise to the old man, to protect his estranged son? Well, you won’t need to worry about that anymore, will you?”
Owens fought hard to keep his anger in check but failed. “The least you can do is honor his memory. He’s been trying to reconcile with you over the last years but you continuously rebuffed him. Going so far as joining his enemies. You broke his heart, Matt. He couldn’t deal with it.”
He uttered a little derisive laugh. “Right, so you blame me for his death, is that it? Why are you even here, Mike?”
“Because I care about family.”
The two men stared at each other with growing fury threatening to be set free.
Another phaser blast hitting close to Michael’s head and adding another large scorch mark to a shiny white wall prompted them back into action as they scrambled down the corridor together.
“Stop running like the coward that you are,” Donners shouted from further down the hallway, following the two brothers.
Owens pushed Matthew around a corner.
“Boy, she’s got murder in her eyes,” Matthew said with seemingly misplaced humor. “Tell me, is there anyone in your life you haven’t managed to tick off?”
“I think I might have turned my last allies against me today.”
“Get out of here, Mike,” he said.
“Not without you.”
“We’re not going to make it far with her chasing us. No doubt she has already called for reinforcements. I can buy you some time and you can try to live to fight another day.”
“I’m not going to let you risk your life—“
“She won’t kill me, it’s you she’s after. And whatever else is going on here, I trust you to figure it out and put a stop to it,” he placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry about, dad. I know we had our differences, and I still think he tried to drive a wedge between us, but that doesn’t mean I’m not sorry he’s gone. But most of all I’m sorry we allowed him to pull us apart.”
Before Owens could say anything else, Matthew turned and disappeared around the corner to run interference.
“Dammit, Matt,” he hissed but realizing he had no other options, he turned the other way, racing towards the extraction point.
He felt his combadge vibrate once he had left behind the shielded part of the complex, alerting him that he was clear for a beam out. He quickly tapped it. “Owens to Akinola. One to beam up.”
But there was no response.
“Owens to Akinola, come in, dammit.”
Nothing.
He continued on, trying to get further away from the shielded parts of the complex, hoping that it would reduce any inference which may prevent Bluefin to get a lock on his position. “Akinola, get me out of here now.”
He stopped in his tracks when Amaya Donners came around a bend and walked right into his path with a wide smirk, clearly having anticipated his destination and cut him off. “Don’t tell me your friends abandoned you. That’s such a common thread for you one would think you’d be used to it by now.”
Owens began to backtrack again, raising his hands slowly while Donners pointed the phaser at him once more. “And maybe you start tiring of playing the spurned lover. How about that?”
“I guess we all have our roles to play. Yours though, ends now.”
A very familiar feeling brought a little grin to his face. “Maybe next time,” he said as felt his body being dematerialized. He could see her indignation even through the haze of the transporter effect, saw the phaser blast which harmlessly passed through his body which was no longer there.
It didn’t stop him of course to grab his chest where the blast had been aimed the moment he had fully rematerialized, relieved not find any injury at all.
Only then did he take note of Bluefin’s transporter room and the female Vulcan officer there to receive him. He completely ignore her and rushed right passed her and towards the bridge.
He had stayed mostly out of sight since he had returned command to Akinola and his crew, after all she was still, essentially an enemy vessel, but he no longer cared about staying inconspicuous as he burst onto the bridge.
“Next time, don’t cut it so damn close,” he barked at Akinola who was getting out of his chair.
The other captain clearly didn’t appreciate his tone; on his own bridge no less. “I don’t foresee there being a next time.”
A quick glance towards the view screen revealed that they were no longer in orbit around Panea. “What are you doing? We’re not done here.”
“Oh yes, we are.”
“We had an agreement,” Owens fumed, ignoring the startled looks of the bridge crew. “It was me and my brother.”
“The agreement was to take you to Panea and bring you back,” said Akinola, matching his intensity, if not his volume. “Not my problem that you came back from the surface alone. If you prefer, we can leave you behind,” he added and then entered a few commands into the armrest controls of his chair. “Of course that would mean you would have to deal with them.”
The view screen switched to an aft view to show Panea as well as two starships coming into view. Agamemnon and Cuffe. It didn’t take long at all for both vessels to begin pursuing Bluefin.
“Looks like they figured it out. The ruse is up, Captain,” said Akinola.
“Get us back to Eagle at maximum speed.”
Akinola glared at the other man for a brief moment, obviously hating being told what to do. He considered his options for only a moment before he slowly nodded to his helmsman.
“We’re not going to outrun those ships,” said Akinola. “So I hope you have some sort of contingency plan in mind because if not, we are both going to hang for this.”
“Sir, we have additional ships now reading on sensors,” said the Vulcan officer who had follow Owens from the transporter room and had taken her station at ops.
“More of ours?” asked Akinola.
The view screen switched back to a forward view to display two ships on an intercept course.
Owens recognized them immediately. Intrepid and Gibraltar were coming in fast.
“This is going to get ugly.”
08/10 – “All Together Now.”
“Helm, come to a full stop.”
“Full stop, aye, sir.”
Owens shot Akinola a sidelong look. “What are you doing?
But Bluefin’s skipper didn’t respond, instead he kept his eyes on the view screen which had been split in half to reveal the full scope of their latest quandary; the forward view on the left showing two Preserver vessels moving in to intercept; the aft view on the right displayed the two Guardian vessels closing in to catch up with Bluefin.
“Between a rock and hard place,” mumbled Akinola.
“So what? You think the best plan of action is to just sit here and wait for everyone to converge on our position?”
Akinola turned towards Owens. “If you have a better idea, by all means, don’t keep it all to yourself.”
That brought him up short and he glanced back towards the view screen, wrecking his brain to come up with a solution to their impending dilemma.
“Sir, both sets of ships have come to a stop as well, staying put at approximately two-hundred thousand kilometers from our present position,” said the Vulcan operations officer.
Akinola nodded but said nothing.
An entire minute of silence passed on the bridge, during which absolutely nothing happened.
“What are they waiting for?” said Owens.
“Probably trying to figure out what to do about this situation. Just like us.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“For once, I agree,” said Akinola. “Lieutenant T’Ser, open a channel.”
The Vulcan turned her head. “To which ship?”
Akinola thought for a moment. “All of them.”
She nodded. “Channel open.”
“Attention, this is Captain Joseph Akinola of the USS Bluefin. With me is Captain Michael Owens of the Eagle.”
Owens didn’t appreciate that he had shared that information and let him know with an icy glare which went entirely ignored.
“We clearly find ourselves at an impasse here. I propose a parley on Bluefin under the Aldebaran Accords. I will guarantee the safety of every captain while onboard of my ship and nobody shall open fire until the parley is concluded.”
T’Ser shook her head; there had been no response.
“The alternative is we all start shooting and go back to trying to kill each other. Or we can actually attempt to find common ground which I know for a fact we all share, even if we have done our damndest to forget this over the last few years. Enough people have already died in this senseless conflict. Let’s try to deescalate for once. We used to be good at doing that kind of thing once upon a time.”
When after another few seconds there still hadn’t been a response, Owens shook his head. “This is pointless,” he whispered.
T’Ser’s ops station came to life with multiple beeps, causing her to crack a smile. “We’re getting multiple responses,” she said and looked up at her captain. “They have agreed to the terms.”
“I’ll be damned,” said Owens before he glanced back at Akinola. “You better get some of that amazing coffee served up. We’ll need more than speeches to avoid this turning into a bloodbath.”
They had assembled in Bluefin’s wardroom not long after, Glover and Donners sitting on the far left hand side of the table while Sandhurst and Aubrey had taken the chairs on the opposite side. Akinola and Owens sat in the middle.
The tension in the room was palpable.
Donners still had the same murderous look in her eyes she’d shown when she had actually tried to kill him less than an hour earlier. Sandhurst and Aubrey did not look particularly happy with Owens either, even though Sandhurst seemed to reserve most of his scorn for Terrence Glover at the other side of the table, with the other man looking just as unhappy of being in the same room with him.
Two armed guards had been positioned at the door and Owens quickly came to understand that their real purpose was likely to ensure the occupants in this room didn’t try to rip each other to shreds.
“Fifteen minutes,” said Glover. “Fifteen minutes is all I’m willing to give this imbecilic meeting to hear out your justification for assaulting a Guardian world, none I’m convinced are excusable, before we return to our ships and we put an end to this for good.”
“Jesus, Terrence,” said Sandhurst with a dramatic eye role. “We haven’t even sat down yet and tasted the coffee before you start posturing? How about you shut up for once and let the reasonable people talk?”
“You are lucky I’m even willing to entertain this joke of a parlay, because you would be the first one I come after. And you know what? The galaxy would thank me for getting rid of you.”
“Alright, people,” said Akinola before Sandhurst could fire back. “Let’s at least try and see if we can resolve this in way that will not lead to more deaths—“
“More deaths?” Donners said, looking confused. “I thought we’ve behaved rather civilly until now.”
Owens shot her an angry look. “Civilly? Is that what you call it?”
“Oh please, don’t play the injured party here, Michael. If I had wanted you dead, you’d already be dead. I am not that lousy of a shot. And I would have been more than justified to take you out. You were the intruder after all.”
“And I’m sure that would have been a convenient excuse,” he said.
Donners simply smirked.
“I want to know what is going on here,” said Aubrey and looked at Akinola and then Owens. “Who are you working for?”
“Same people as you,” said Owens.
“Doesn’t look like it from where I’m sitting. From over here you look a lot like a traitor.”
Donners shook her head. “He’s no traitor.”
Owens turned to look at her, surprised to hear her offer something other than scorn for him for a change.
“Stabbing his friends in the back is simply what he does. Can’t help himself.”
“None of this is getting us anywhere,” said Akinola, barely able to hide is increasing frustration.
“Isn’t it?” said Sandhurst and focused in on the man sitting opposite him, at the far end of the table. “Or is this exactly going according to your plan, Terrence?”
“What the hell are you talking about now?”
“You knew coming into this that you were outgunned and overpowered if you were to take us on. The only reason you agreed to the parlay was to stall for time. Who are you hoping to pull your fat out of the fire? Schwarzkopf and Heracles? Maybe Orion? As far as the latter is concerned, I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”
Glover hit the table with such force, some of the coffee in his cup spilled onto the surface. “I don’t need any help to take you out, Sandy. Happy to go right here, right now, in fact. Just you and me.”
It was Donners who put a calming hand onto his shoulder. “Calm down, Terrence,” she said. “He’s just goading you,” she fixed Sandhurst with a piercing glare. “What’s this bad news about Orion?”
But Sandhurst realized he had said too much, and none of the other captains spoke either.
“What happened to Captain Reihyn and his ship?” Donners demanded, her tone now razor-sharp.
“She was destroyed,” said Aubrey finally.
“What?” Glover was clearly beside himself. “You finally did it, you became a mass murderer for your insipid little cause,” he said, keeping his eyes on Sandhurst but then directing his fury towards Akinola. “And these are the people you decided to align yourself with? You are as rotten as Owens.”
“It’s not that simple,” said Akinola meekly.
“Sounds pretty black and white to me,” said Glover and stood. “I think this meeting is over.”
“Sit down, Terrence,” said Sandhurst sharply.
“Why don’t you come over here and make me?”
“Orion was destroyed by Tazla Star who blatantly violated the Aldebaran Accords and will have to answer for her crimes,” said Aubrey. “The destruction of the Orion was not sanctioned by Starfleet Command or any member of this task force.”
“Right,” said Glover. “And I’m sure you did everything you could to stop her, did you?”
Aubrey shook his head. “I would have, if I had been given the chance.”
“Listen,” said Owens. “The fact is Star is out of control and will do anything to achieve her objective, and as we have already seen, she’ll have no compunction to kill whoever gets in her way. Her target is located directly underneath a busy city. If we don’t do something quickly, the loss of Orion and her crew will be but a prelude to the civilian death toll she may cause.”
Aubrey nodded slowly. “I agree that she needs to be stopped. But I don’t disagree with the mission. The Alpha Weapon needs to be destroyed.”
“What if its not a weapon?”
All eyes turned towards Owens.
“If not a weapon than what is it?” said Glover who had sat down again, his rage over what he’d learned having passed, at least for now.
“According to my brother, he and Frobisher have been developing a dark-matter transporter,” he said. “I don’t know the details but I believe him. I don’t think he’s working on a super-weapon. It’s not something he’d do.”
“This makes no sense,” said Aubrey. “All this over a transporter?”
“For all we know it could still be used as a weapon. Maybe it is able to beam troops from one side to the quadrant to the other. The Guardians could use it to teleport a strike team into the middle of Paris, San Francisco or the Nyberrite homeworld,” said Sandhurst, keeping his eyes on Glover, making it clear that he didn’t put something like this past the man.
“You’re right,” said Owens. “We don’t know anything about this. Which means we’re working with flawed intelligence here. I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to risk any more lives based on hypotheticals. We need to find Star and stop her.”
“That won’t be easy,” said Aubrey. “Last time we spoke to her she ordered us to abandon the mission and dropped off sensors shortly thereafter.”
“She keeps doing that,” added Sandhurst.
“Gibraltar has the ability to find her again,” said Owens.
“Bridge to Captain.”
Akinola glanced towards the ceiling upon hearing his first officer’s voice. “Go ahead, T’Ser.”
“Sir, sensors have just detected a small fleet of ships approaching Panea. They will reach orbit in less than thirty-five minutes.”
The occupants in the wardroom turned to look at each other with suspicion upon hearing the news.
“Guardians or Preservers, Lieutenant?” Akinola asked.
“Neither, sir. It’s the Nyberrites.”
“Godddammit,” said Owens.
Glover jumped to his feet. “We make our stand, right now, right here.”
Owens shook his head. “That’s insane. We’ll start a war.”
“If the Nyberrites are here because they think we are harboring an super weapon, we might already be past that point,” said Donners. “And if they actually find one on Panea, there won’t be any turning back at all.”
“I hate to say it but she has a point,” said Aubrey.
But Owens shook his head. “We’re not going to start a war because of a hypothetical chance that they might find something that may or may not even exist.”
“You were the one who wanted to avoid civilian casualties. You know how the Nyberrites operate. You are worried about Star putting lives at risk? The Nyberrites will wipe Panea off the face of the galaxy just to make a point. Grow a godddamned backbone, Michael. For once in your life,” Donners said with unbridled indignation evident on both her face and in her tone.
Glover headed for the exit. “I’m done with this. Any second we stay in here debating this is a second they get closer to Panea. We’ll move to intercept their fleet. You do whatever you want and pray you can live with your decision.”
Donners shot Owens a scornful, parting glare before she quickly followed Glover.
The room fell quiet for a brief moment. Then Aubrey stood. “It’s the only play.”
Owens shook his head. “No, it’s not.”
“I rue the day that I agree with Glover on anything,” said Sandhurst, “but I’m not going to let them destroy an entire world of Federation citizens. Guardians or otherwise.”
Aubrey and Sandhurst exited the wardrobe in a hurry, leaving just Owens and Akinola.
“And I will not stand by and let them go into battle alone,” said Akinola.
Owens nodded. “Of course you’re not. But first get a message to Eagle to join us as quickly as possible. At maximum speed she should be able to get back here from her hiding spot before the Nyberrite fleet reaches Panea.”
But Akinola looked skeptical.
“You get your crew back and another ship to hold off the Nyberrites,” he said and then looked out of the viewports into empty space. “And with any luck we haven’t thrown the entire quadrant into another intergalactic war before the day is over.”
“Helm, come to a full stop.”
“Full stop, aye, sir.”
Owens shot Akinola a sidelong look. “What are you doing?
But Bluefin’s skipper didn’t respond, instead he kept his eyes on the view screen which had been split in half to reveal the full scope of their latest quandary; the forward view on the left showing two Preserver vessels moving in to intercept; the aft view on the right displayed the two Guardian vessels closing in to catch up with Bluefin.
“Between a rock and hard place,” mumbled Akinola.
“So what? You think the best plan of action is to just sit here and wait for everyone to converge on our position?”
Akinola turned towards Owens. “If you have a better idea, by all means, don’t keep it all to yourself.”
That brought him up short and he glanced back towards the view screen, wrecking his brain to come up with a solution to their impending dilemma.
“Sir, both sets of ships have come to a stop as well, staying put at approximately two-hundred thousand kilometers from our present position,” said the Vulcan operations officer.
Akinola nodded but said nothing.
An entire minute of silence passed on the bridge, during which absolutely nothing happened.
“What are they waiting for?” said Owens.
“Probably trying to figure out what to do about this situation. Just like us.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“For once, I agree,” said Akinola. “Lieutenant T’Ser, open a channel.”
The Vulcan turned her head. “To which ship?”
Akinola thought for a moment. “All of them.”
She nodded. “Channel open.”
“Attention, this is Captain Joseph Akinola of the USS Bluefin. With me is Captain Michael Owens of the Eagle.”
Owens didn’t appreciate that he had shared that information and let him know with an icy glare which went entirely ignored.
“We clearly find ourselves at an impasse here. I propose a parley on Bluefin under the Aldebaran Accords. I will guarantee the safety of every captain while onboard of my ship and nobody shall open fire until the parley is concluded.”
T’Ser shook her head; there had been no response.
“The alternative is we all start shooting and go back to trying to kill each other. Or we can actually attempt to find common ground which I know for a fact we all share, even if we have done our damndest to forget this over the last few years. Enough people have already died in this senseless conflict. Let’s try to deescalate for once. We used to be good at doing that kind of thing once upon a time.”
When after another few seconds there still hadn’t been a response, Owens shook his head. “This is pointless,” he whispered.
T’Ser’s ops station came to life with multiple beeps, causing her to crack a smile. “We’re getting multiple responses,” she said and looked up at her captain. “They have agreed to the terms.”
“I’ll be damned,” said Owens before he glanced back at Akinola. “You better get some of that amazing coffee served up. We’ll need more than speeches to avoid this turning into a bloodbath.”
* * *
They had assembled in Bluefin’s wardroom not long after, Glover and Donners sitting on the far left hand side of the table while Sandhurst and Aubrey had taken the chairs on the opposite side. Akinola and Owens sat in the middle.
The tension in the room was palpable.
Donners still had the same murderous look in her eyes she’d shown when she had actually tried to kill him less than an hour earlier. Sandhurst and Aubrey did not look particularly happy with Owens either, even though Sandhurst seemed to reserve most of his scorn for Terrence Glover at the other side of the table, with the other man looking just as unhappy of being in the same room with him.
Two armed guards had been positioned at the door and Owens quickly came to understand that their real purpose was likely to ensure the occupants in this room didn’t try to rip each other to shreds.
“Fifteen minutes,” said Glover. “Fifteen minutes is all I’m willing to give this imbecilic meeting to hear out your justification for assaulting a Guardian world, none I’m convinced are excusable, before we return to our ships and we put an end to this for good.”
“Jesus, Terrence,” said Sandhurst with a dramatic eye role. “We haven’t even sat down yet and tasted the coffee before you start posturing? How about you shut up for once and let the reasonable people talk?”
“You are lucky I’m even willing to entertain this joke of a parlay, because you would be the first one I come after. And you know what? The galaxy would thank me for getting rid of you.”
“Alright, people,” said Akinola before Sandhurst could fire back. “Let’s at least try and see if we can resolve this in way that will not lead to more deaths—“
“More deaths?” Donners said, looking confused. “I thought we’ve behaved rather civilly until now.”
Owens shot her an angry look. “Civilly? Is that what you call it?”
“Oh please, don’t play the injured party here, Michael. If I had wanted you dead, you’d already be dead. I am not that lousy of a shot. And I would have been more than justified to take you out. You were the intruder after all.”
“And I’m sure that would have been a convenient excuse,” he said.
Donners simply smirked.
“I want to know what is going on here,” said Aubrey and looked at Akinola and then Owens. “Who are you working for?”
“Same people as you,” said Owens.
“Doesn’t look like it from where I’m sitting. From over here you look a lot like a traitor.”
Donners shook her head. “He’s no traitor.”
Owens turned to look at her, surprised to hear her offer something other than scorn for him for a change.
“Stabbing his friends in the back is simply what he does. Can’t help himself.”
“None of this is getting us anywhere,” said Akinola, barely able to hide is increasing frustration.
“Isn’t it?” said Sandhurst and focused in on the man sitting opposite him, at the far end of the table. “Or is this exactly going according to your plan, Terrence?”
“What the hell are you talking about now?”
“You knew coming into this that you were outgunned and overpowered if you were to take us on. The only reason you agreed to the parlay was to stall for time. Who are you hoping to pull your fat out of the fire? Schwarzkopf and Heracles? Maybe Orion? As far as the latter is concerned, I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”
Glover hit the table with such force, some of the coffee in his cup spilled onto the surface. “I don’t need any help to take you out, Sandy. Happy to go right here, right now, in fact. Just you and me.”
It was Donners who put a calming hand onto his shoulder. “Calm down, Terrence,” she said. “He’s just goading you,” she fixed Sandhurst with a piercing glare. “What’s this bad news about Orion?”
But Sandhurst realized he had said too much, and none of the other captains spoke either.
“What happened to Captain Reihyn and his ship?” Donners demanded, her tone now razor-sharp.
“She was destroyed,” said Aubrey finally.
“What?” Glover was clearly beside himself. “You finally did it, you became a mass murderer for your insipid little cause,” he said, keeping his eyes on Sandhurst but then directing his fury towards Akinola. “And these are the people you decided to align yourself with? You are as rotten as Owens.”
“It’s not that simple,” said Akinola meekly.
“Sounds pretty black and white to me,” said Glover and stood. “I think this meeting is over.”
“Sit down, Terrence,” said Sandhurst sharply.
“Why don’t you come over here and make me?”
“Orion was destroyed by Tazla Star who blatantly violated the Aldebaran Accords and will have to answer for her crimes,” said Aubrey. “The destruction of the Orion was not sanctioned by Starfleet Command or any member of this task force.”
“Right,” said Glover. “And I’m sure you did everything you could to stop her, did you?”
Aubrey shook his head. “I would have, if I had been given the chance.”
“Listen,” said Owens. “The fact is Star is out of control and will do anything to achieve her objective, and as we have already seen, she’ll have no compunction to kill whoever gets in her way. Her target is located directly underneath a busy city. If we don’t do something quickly, the loss of Orion and her crew will be but a prelude to the civilian death toll she may cause.”
Aubrey nodded slowly. “I agree that she needs to be stopped. But I don’t disagree with the mission. The Alpha Weapon needs to be destroyed.”
“What if its not a weapon?”
All eyes turned towards Owens.
“If not a weapon than what is it?” said Glover who had sat down again, his rage over what he’d learned having passed, at least for now.
“According to my brother, he and Frobisher have been developing a dark-matter transporter,” he said. “I don’t know the details but I believe him. I don’t think he’s working on a super-weapon. It’s not something he’d do.”
“This makes no sense,” said Aubrey. “All this over a transporter?”
“For all we know it could still be used as a weapon. Maybe it is able to beam troops from one side to the quadrant to the other. The Guardians could use it to teleport a strike team into the middle of Paris, San Francisco or the Nyberrite homeworld,” said Sandhurst, keeping his eyes on Glover, making it clear that he didn’t put something like this past the man.
“You’re right,” said Owens. “We don’t know anything about this. Which means we’re working with flawed intelligence here. I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to risk any more lives based on hypotheticals. We need to find Star and stop her.”
“That won’t be easy,” said Aubrey. “Last time we spoke to her she ordered us to abandon the mission and dropped off sensors shortly thereafter.”
“She keeps doing that,” added Sandhurst.
“Gibraltar has the ability to find her again,” said Owens.
“Bridge to Captain.”
Akinola glanced towards the ceiling upon hearing his first officer’s voice. “Go ahead, T’Ser.”
“Sir, sensors have just detected a small fleet of ships approaching Panea. They will reach orbit in less than thirty-five minutes.”
The occupants in the wardroom turned to look at each other with suspicion upon hearing the news.
“Guardians or Preservers, Lieutenant?” Akinola asked.
“Neither, sir. It’s the Nyberrites.”
“Godddammit,” said Owens.
Glover jumped to his feet. “We make our stand, right now, right here.”
Owens shook his head. “That’s insane. We’ll start a war.”
“If the Nyberrites are here because they think we are harboring an super weapon, we might already be past that point,” said Donners. “And if they actually find one on Panea, there won’t be any turning back at all.”
“I hate to say it but she has a point,” said Aubrey.
But Owens shook his head. “We’re not going to start a war because of a hypothetical chance that they might find something that may or may not even exist.”
“You were the one who wanted to avoid civilian casualties. You know how the Nyberrites operate. You are worried about Star putting lives at risk? The Nyberrites will wipe Panea off the face of the galaxy just to make a point. Grow a godddamned backbone, Michael. For once in your life,” Donners said with unbridled indignation evident on both her face and in her tone.
Glover headed for the exit. “I’m done with this. Any second we stay in here debating this is a second they get closer to Panea. We’ll move to intercept their fleet. You do whatever you want and pray you can live with your decision.”
Donners shot Owens a scornful, parting glare before she quickly followed Glover.
The room fell quiet for a brief moment. Then Aubrey stood. “It’s the only play.”
Owens shook his head. “No, it’s not.”
“I rue the day that I agree with Glover on anything,” said Sandhurst, “but I’m not going to let them destroy an entire world of Federation citizens. Guardians or otherwise.”
Aubrey and Sandhurst exited the wardrobe in a hurry, leaving just Owens and Akinola.
“And I will not stand by and let them go into battle alone,” said Akinola.
Owens nodded. “Of course you’re not. But first get a message to Eagle to join us as quickly as possible. At maximum speed she should be able to get back here from her hiding spot before the Nyberrite fleet reaches Panea.”
But Akinola looked skeptical.
“You get your crew back and another ship to hold off the Nyberrites,” he said and then looked out of the viewports into empty space. “And with any luck we haven’t thrown the entire quadrant into another intergalactic war before the day is over.”
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Well, I thought that went rather well.
Not.
Let's give Akinola a "nice-try" but this parley had little chance with all the posturing, hot-headed, type-A starship captains growling at each other. Ironically, it may be the Nyberrites that get these prima-donnas to work together . . . Assuming they don't get themselves (and the Alpha Quadrant) destroyed in the process!
And where, pray tell, is Star?
Not.
Let's give Akinola a "nice-try" but this parley had little chance with all the posturing, hot-headed, type-A starship captains growling at each other. Ironically, it may be the Nyberrites that get these prima-donnas to work together . . . Assuming they don't get themselves (and the Alpha Quadrant) destroyed in the process!
And where, pray tell, is Star?
Getting back into this... LOVED the Solly/Pava fight, and how tense and agonizing a civil war between Starfleet trained officers is. All those ethics and morals bleeding with every internecine clash!
You've really captured the desperation of such a complex conflict.
You've really captured the desperation of such a complex conflict.
Still looking good on the second read through. 
This part of the story in particular illustrates the clashing philosophies of the remaining Starfleet factions.
In the "old days", these officers would have pooled their efforts under a single leader and/or Starfleet orders. Now, it's almost a wild west atmosphere. What command structure still exists is already creaking under its own weight.
A fun AU. Keep it coming.
This part of the story in particular illustrates the clashing philosophies of the remaining Starfleet factions.
In the "old days", these officers would have pooled their efforts under a single leader and/or Starfleet orders. Now, it's almost a wild west atmosphere. What command structure still exists is already creaking under its own weight.
A fun AU. Keep it coming.
09/10 – “Now You See It, Now You Don’t”
By the time Eagle had rendezvoused with Bluefin and Owens had returned Akinola’s crewmen, the other four ships had already moved in to intercept the incoming Nyberrite fleet, not willing to wait.
Bluefin followed the others the moment her full crew as back on board.
“What are your orders, Captain?” asked Jose Carlos from the tactical station after Owens hadn’t given any since Bluefin had departed to join the impromptu and unlikely task force going after the Nyberrites.
He understood that he really only had two choices, neither of them particularly good. Support the other ships in engaging the Nyberrites and thereby keeping Panea and his brother safe from an all out assault but possibly making him vulnerable to Tazla Star, or head directly to Panea, ignoring the incoming fleet and hope that the task force was enough to keep them occupied until he could extract Matthew and perhaps his prototype while he was at it.
An open battle with the Nyberrites would most likely lead to all out war but then again, it seemed they were already beyond that point.
“Set a course to intercept the Nyberrite fleet, maximum impulse.”
The helmsman acknowledged.
Eagle managed to catch up with the rest of the task force just as they were getting ready to engage. “Hail the incoming fleet.”
But Carlos quickly shook his head. “No response, sir.”
“That’s not like them, they usually like to hear themselves talk,” said Owens more to himself than anybody else there.
“Sir, the Nyberrite fleet is opening fire.”
“Without a warning?”
Carlos looked at his captain. “Both fleets have engaged. What are your orders, sir?”
“Dammit all to hell,” said Owens. “All hands to battle stations. Move us in, attack pattern omega-four.”
The bridge crew jumped into action once the red alert had begun to sound and the red strobe lights had started to flash. Within moments Eagle had joined the fray, finding herself surrounded by an unlikely combination of starships. Preservers and Guardians,who had been at their throats just a short time earlier were now fighting side by side against a fleet made up of eight powerful starships; Klingon, Romulan and Nyberrite.
It was a battle Owens had worked hard to avoid over the last few years while the Guardians had tried everything to provoke it. Now it seemed war had finally found them again.
He frowned as he looked at the tactical viewer on the screen. While the five other Starfleet ships were certainly fighting on the same side for the first time in nearly four years, they definitely were not fighting as one. Donners and Glover were overly aggressive, pushing right into the middle of the enemy, while Aubrey and Sandhurst were keeping at the periphery, engaging the Nyberrites but not offering any kind of support to the rest of their impromptu task force.
He shook his head as he opened a secure channel to the ships on his side. “Glover, we need to stick to one attack pattern here, otherwise we don’t stand a chance.”
His response came promptly. “Yes, and the plan is to come in hot and fast, push them onto the defensive before they have a chance to go on the offensive.”
“Why am I not surprised,” responded Sandhurst, sounding dismissive. “Fools rush in, Terrence. Fools like you.”
“At least I’m making a difference here instead of—“
“Stop this now,” said Akinola sharply. “Owens is right, God help me I said this, but he is. We need a more collaborated effort if we have to have any hope of winning this.”
“Not sure I agree with that, Uncle Joe,” said Donners. “Looks to me we are pushing them back just fine.”
“Something isn’t right here,” Aubrey said next. “This almost feels too easy.”
“Gift horse,” Donners shot back. “Let’s not look it in the mouth and blow them away.”
Owens felt the ship tremble as it took multiple hits from both a Romulan Warbird and Vorcha-class battleship. But not nearly as much as it should have considering how powerful those ships were.
“Shields at seventy-seven percent,” said Carlos.
“Why are they holding back?” Owens said.
“Donald,” said Aubrey. “I’m smelling a rat here. Can you give us a quick SMA scan. I’ll cover you.”
“Consider it done.”
Owens watched on as Gibraltar dropped back while Intrepid placed herself between the Luna-class ship and the Nyberrite fleet. Then the telltale energy eruption of Gibraltar’s high-resolution scanner blinded the view screen for a brief moment as the sensor wave expanded outwards.
Owens didn’t need to wait for the telemetry to see the results. The enemy fleet flickered for a brief moment, seemingly phasing in and out of existence.
“They’re goddamn holograms. All of them,” Glover fumed.
Owens felt a sense of relief come over him at learning the truth. The Nyberrites weren’t real, meaning they were still fully unaware of the supposed Alpha-Weapon prototype the Guardians had developed and full out war could still be averted.
The sensation didn’t last long, as not a moment later he realized what this meant. “It’s a distraction,” he said.
“A pretty damn good one,” said Akinola. “They might not pack the same punch as the real thing, but they’re weapons are still deadly enough.”
Owens saw what he meant. The tactical display offered a status overview for all Starfleet ships and while their shield were all still intact, the holographic fleet was beginning to wear them down.
“We need to locate the power source,” said Aubrey. “We shut it down and the holograms disappear. Donald?”
“We’ll need to reconfigure the array. It’ll take a few minutes.”
Owens shook his head even though his link to the other ships was audio-only. “We don’t have the time. This is Star’s doing. She’s making her move on Panea right now. I’m going back there, you find the source of the holograms and shut down this fleet.”
“Nobody made you boss, Owens,” Glover shot back.
“Fine, do as you will, but I’m going after Star. Owens out.” And with that he disconnected the channel. “Helm, take us to Panea, maximum speed.”
“Aye, sir.”
Glancing on the tactical viewer, he could see that Cuffe and Intrepid were trying to disengage as well in order to follow Eagle while the other ships remained fighting the holographic fleet. Owens didn’t care, he needed to get back to his brother and stop Star. With or without their help.
By the time Eagle had rendezvoused with Bluefin and Owens had returned Akinola’s crewmen, the other four ships had already moved in to intercept the incoming Nyberrite fleet, not willing to wait.
Bluefin followed the others the moment her full crew as back on board.
“What are your orders, Captain?” asked Jose Carlos from the tactical station after Owens hadn’t given any since Bluefin had departed to join the impromptu and unlikely task force going after the Nyberrites.
He understood that he really only had two choices, neither of them particularly good. Support the other ships in engaging the Nyberrites and thereby keeping Panea and his brother safe from an all out assault but possibly making him vulnerable to Tazla Star, or head directly to Panea, ignoring the incoming fleet and hope that the task force was enough to keep them occupied until he could extract Matthew and perhaps his prototype while he was at it.
An open battle with the Nyberrites would most likely lead to all out war but then again, it seemed they were already beyond that point.
“Set a course to intercept the Nyberrite fleet, maximum impulse.”
The helmsman acknowledged.
Eagle managed to catch up with the rest of the task force just as they were getting ready to engage. “Hail the incoming fleet.”
But Carlos quickly shook his head. “No response, sir.”
“That’s not like them, they usually like to hear themselves talk,” said Owens more to himself than anybody else there.
“Sir, the Nyberrite fleet is opening fire.”
“Without a warning?”
Carlos looked at his captain. “Both fleets have engaged. What are your orders, sir?”
“Dammit all to hell,” said Owens. “All hands to battle stations. Move us in, attack pattern omega-four.”
The bridge crew jumped into action once the red alert had begun to sound and the red strobe lights had started to flash. Within moments Eagle had joined the fray, finding herself surrounded by an unlikely combination of starships. Preservers and Guardians,who had been at their throats just a short time earlier were now fighting side by side against a fleet made up of eight powerful starships; Klingon, Romulan and Nyberrite.
It was a battle Owens had worked hard to avoid over the last few years while the Guardians had tried everything to provoke it. Now it seemed war had finally found them again.
He frowned as he looked at the tactical viewer on the screen. While the five other Starfleet ships were certainly fighting on the same side for the first time in nearly four years, they definitely were not fighting as one. Donners and Glover were overly aggressive, pushing right into the middle of the enemy, while Aubrey and Sandhurst were keeping at the periphery, engaging the Nyberrites but not offering any kind of support to the rest of their impromptu task force.
He shook his head as he opened a secure channel to the ships on his side. “Glover, we need to stick to one attack pattern here, otherwise we don’t stand a chance.”
His response came promptly. “Yes, and the plan is to come in hot and fast, push them onto the defensive before they have a chance to go on the offensive.”
“Why am I not surprised,” responded Sandhurst, sounding dismissive. “Fools rush in, Terrence. Fools like you.”
“At least I’m making a difference here instead of—“
“Stop this now,” said Akinola sharply. “Owens is right, God help me I said this, but he is. We need a more collaborated effort if we have to have any hope of winning this.”
“Not sure I agree with that, Uncle Joe,” said Donners. “Looks to me we are pushing them back just fine.”
“Something isn’t right here,” Aubrey said next. “This almost feels too easy.”
“Gift horse,” Donners shot back. “Let’s not look it in the mouth and blow them away.”
Owens felt the ship tremble as it took multiple hits from both a Romulan Warbird and Vorcha-class battleship. But not nearly as much as it should have considering how powerful those ships were.
“Shields at seventy-seven percent,” said Carlos.
“Why are they holding back?” Owens said.
“Donald,” said Aubrey. “I’m smelling a rat here. Can you give us a quick SMA scan. I’ll cover you.”
“Consider it done.”
Owens watched on as Gibraltar dropped back while Intrepid placed herself between the Luna-class ship and the Nyberrite fleet. Then the telltale energy eruption of Gibraltar’s high-resolution scanner blinded the view screen for a brief moment as the sensor wave expanded outwards.
Owens didn’t need to wait for the telemetry to see the results. The enemy fleet flickered for a brief moment, seemingly phasing in and out of existence.
“They’re goddamn holograms. All of them,” Glover fumed.
Owens felt a sense of relief come over him at learning the truth. The Nyberrites weren’t real, meaning they were still fully unaware of the supposed Alpha-Weapon prototype the Guardians had developed and full out war could still be averted.
The sensation didn’t last long, as not a moment later he realized what this meant. “It’s a distraction,” he said.
“A pretty damn good one,” said Akinola. “They might not pack the same punch as the real thing, but they’re weapons are still deadly enough.”
Owens saw what he meant. The tactical display offered a status overview for all Starfleet ships and while their shield were all still intact, the holographic fleet was beginning to wear them down.
“We need to locate the power source,” said Aubrey. “We shut it down and the holograms disappear. Donald?”
“We’ll need to reconfigure the array. It’ll take a few minutes.”
Owens shook his head even though his link to the other ships was audio-only. “We don’t have the time. This is Star’s doing. She’s making her move on Panea right now. I’m going back there, you find the source of the holograms and shut down this fleet.”
“Nobody made you boss, Owens,” Glover shot back.
“Fine, do as you will, but I’m going after Star. Owens out.” And with that he disconnected the channel. “Helm, take us to Panea, maximum speed.”
“Aye, sir.”
Glancing on the tactical viewer, he could see that Cuffe and Intrepid were trying to disengage as well in order to follow Eagle while the other ships remained fighting the holographic fleet. Owens didn’t care, he needed to get back to his brother and stop Star. With or without their help.
* * *
“Report,” Owens pretty much barked the moment Eagle was approaching Panea.
“Nothing on sensors, sir,” said Stanmore from ops. “All’s quiet.”
“No,” said Owens. “She’s up to something, I know it. Keep your eyes open.”
“Sir, the Cuffe and the Intrepid are approaching. They are hailing us.”
“Put them through.”
“I don’t know what you’re up to, Owens, but you can forget about it,” said Terrence Glover over the audio channel without any preamble.
“I’m going down there.”
“The hell you are.”
Owens glanced at the other two starships rapidly approaching the planet. “They way I see it, Captain, you are outnumbered.”
“Maybe, doesn’t mean I’m going to let you go down there without a fight. Besides, last time I checked you were not being held in the highest esteem even with your own people.”
Jason Aubrey remained suspiciously quiet.
Glover continued. “If it comes to it, I’m fairly certain I can keep you both occupied long enough for Heracles and an entire Guardian fleet to join our party.”
“Let’s agree that our main objective is to keep Tazla Star from this … whatever it is. I know first hand what she is capable of,” said Aubrey. “And I’m also fairly certain that whatever her play here is, she’ll make it before your reinforcements show up.”
“All the more reason to let me go down there and secure the site,” said Owens.
“I’m sending a security team right now,” said Glover.
Owens headed for the turbolift. “Do that. I’ll join them. Or if you prefer, you can try to stop me by starting another fight. But for once, I’m not your enemy, and you know it.” He made a cutting off motion by his throat to indicate to Jose Carlos to disconnect the channel, which he quickly did. “I’m going down there. You have the bridge, Lieutenant. Keep and eye out for Sacajawea, don’t let her come close to the planet.”
“Aye, sir.”
Owens was already in the turbolift, ordering it to the transporter room.
Using the same intelligence data that had permitted him to infiltrate the facility earlier, allowed him to beam right back into the complex. It didn’t take him long to run in Cuffe’s security detail, led by and imposingly large Angosian.
“Secure the facility,” Owens said. “We know Star is going to make a move, but we don’t know where it is going to come from.”
The Angosian who stood nearly a head taller than Owens was momentarily taken back by Owens’ brazen attitude. “You don’t give me orders.”
“Alright, what are your orders?”
“To keep an eye on you.”
Owens smirked and then walked passed the Angosian and his men. “In that case, keep up.”
Owens found his brother, Frobisher and Jarik in one of the labs surrounding their prototype which was housed at the center of an oval room which was visible through a curved, glass wall in the laboratory. It had been the first time Owens had seen the prototype which didn’t look like any transporter he had ever seen. Instead the dull gray device, standing about five meters tall, bugling wide at the bottom and then becoming more narrow the higher it went, look almost like an oversized flower vase.
Frobisher turned on Owens and the security team following him the moment they had entered. “What is the meaning of this, what are you doing back here?”
Owens completely ignored the agitated scientist and glanced at his brother instead. “We know Tazla Star is making a move on the prototype. These men are here to stop her.”
The heavily armed team quickly spread out, taking position all around the lab to have eyes on the high-value target just beyond the room from all possible angles. Owens could see the Angosian talking through his combadge, most likely with Glover in orbit.
“Michael?”
He stepped closer to his brother. “Let me take you out of here, Matt. The risk is too great.”
He shook his head. “I told you before—“
“I know, I know, it’s your life’s work. But tell me what good it does you if you’re no longer around for it?” He glanced at the prototype. “Let’s take you and it out of here.”
“Why should we trust you?” said Frobisher. “You are with the Preservers. You have been sent here to destroy it.”
He nodded, acceding to the point, partially. “Yes. But that was based on intelligence that you were creating an Alpha Weapon. If this is not the case, the mission has changed.”
Frobisher looked skeptical.
But Jarik began to nod slowly. “It is logical,” he said. “We should prepare the device for transport. This location is no longer secure.”
“It’s not that simple and you know that,” said Matthew. “Big Betty is hardwired into the mainframe.”
“How much time do you need to get it ready for transport?” Owens asked.
“If we do it properly, an hour, maybe two,” said Matthew.
“We don’t have that kind of time,” said Owens. “This whole place might be nothing more than rubble in an hour.”
“An emergency separation could be accomplished in less than twenty minutes,” said Jarik.
But Frobisher quickly shook his head. “Not without damaging the prototype.”
Owens was getting frustrated. “Damage can be repaired. Rebuilding this thing from scratch—“
“Near impossible,” offered his brother. “Not with the resources we have left.”
“I shall see to the separation,” said Jarik and then glanced at Frobisher. “Doctor, if you were to assist me we might be able to limit the damage to the prototype.”
Frobisher hesitated, clearly not happy with this plan. But when Matthew gave him a nod to proceed, he hesitantly followed Jarik out of the room, quickly picking up the pace once the Vulcan began to hurry, obviously worried about any irreparable damage he might cause.
“So,” said Matthew. “You came back.”
“For you.”
“Really?”
“Matt, we two are the only family we have left. I know we have not seen eye to eye on things for a very long time—“
“You blamed me for dad.”
“Yes. And I probably shouldn’t have.”
“You are damn right, you shouldn’t have.”
Owens took a deep breath. “Look, I don’t want to fight. Let’s just get you out of here.”
Matthew took a step closer to the transparent wall overlooking his creation. Both Jarik and Frobisher were now working on the equipment, preparing the prototype for transport. “And then what? Do you think I’m so grateful for your rescue that I will come back to your side? The very same people who practically forced me out of my work.”
“I’m sure something can be arranged.”
Matthew uttered a mirthless laugh as he turned back to his brother. “Of course, now that I have a working prototype which turns out is not the weapon to doom us all and bring about a war we cannot win, I’m suddenly a commodity again, right?”
“You stay here and help the Guardians, sooner or later there will be a war. Sooner or later they will push too far. We thought it was going to be with what you’ve built here, but if that’s not what is going to be the lynchpin, the next thing will be. Mark my words.”
“And what exactly is your plan? To stay hidden away on the handful of planets you still control and hope the Nyberrites will let you be? Sticking your heads in the sand? That has never worked. And if I have learned something about the Guardians, they won’t be stopped. Not until the Nyberrites are gone and the Federation is back to what it once was.”
“A refusal to accept reality is not a valid strategy. It’s delusion, plain and simple.”
“I’m not a politician, Mike, and to be honest, I have no interest in any of this. I just want to be able to work on—“
An explosion rocked the facility, causing the floor to tremble so forcefully, Owens nearly lost his footing. “She’s here.”
Matthew ran towards a nearby console and checked the data. “That explosion came from cargo hold two on the west side of the facility.”
“Aubrey to Owens.”
Owens tapped his combadge. “Go ahead.”
“We just registered an explosion below the surface.”
He nodded. “Star is making her move. Have you been able to detect her in orbit?”
“We believe we have a fix on her position and are moving on her now. We’ll provide an update once we know more. Aubrey out.”
Owens noticed that a number of security officers were moving out. “Lieutenant,” he said, addressing the Angosian. “What are you doing? This is obviously a distraction.”
The security chief shot the other man an annoyed glare. “I wasn’t born yesterday, Captain. I’m sending a team to check it out, the rest will stay here and secure the target.”
“Mike.”
Owens looked at his brother who was displaying sudden concern while looking over a computer console. “What?”
“Something is very wrong. The internal security system just turned on.”
“About time.”
Matthew looked up at him. “In this room.”
Owens spotted movement on the ceiling from the corner of his eye. “Move,” he pushed Matthew down and not a moment too soon as a phaser blast fired a hole into the floor where he had stood just a second earlier.
The ceiling erupted with phaser fire, targeting, it seemed, every person in the lab.
Owens picked his brother up again and pushed him towards the exit, looking over his shoulder he could see the security team trying to return fire but the fight was over before it had even started, as one after the other was cut down.
The security chief took at least four or five blasts, before he even stumbled. Owens was impressed by his resilience but kept moving until both he and Matthew had cleared the lab turned death trap, both collapsing in the hallway outside, struggling for air.
“Star must have gained access to the security systems,” said Owens as he looked over his brother. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” he said and he picked himself off the floor. “But I can’t see how she would have been able to do that. Only three people have access to it.”
“Let me guess; you, Frobisher and Jarik.”
He nodded. “But why would—“
“Wake up, Matt, you’ve been betrayed,” said Owens and drew his phaser. “Good thing we know exactly where both of them are. Stay here, I’ll deal with this.”
“Not a chance, I’m coming with you.”
“Matt—“
“I’m done arguing, Mike. This is my work. I won’t abandon it.”
Owens could see that there was no changing his mind on this. “Just stay back and keep your head down. At least one of your friends is not on your side anymore and I have a pretty good idea who it is.”
Matthew shook his head as he followed his brother. “It’s not Wes, I’ve worked with him for decades, he’s as invested in this as I am, he wouldn’t risk everything like this.”
“Never trusted the man,” said Owens. “Who knows what he has been offered.”
The two men reached the central chamber and silently snuck inside. All was quiet. There was no sign of either Frobisher or Jarik. Owens quickly indicate for Matthew to hold position behind a large piece of cooling machinery and out of sight as he crouched low and proceeded further into the room, using whatever he could as cover, phaser at the ready.
The chamber was even bigger than it had appeared from the adjacent lab. Shaped like an oval, the tall prototype stood at its center with at least three rings of walkways surrounding it, along with a great amount of equipment and machinery, all most likely to support Big Betty. He noticed a great many conduits which clearly had been separated in a hurry, some of them, it appeared still had high-voltage electro-plasma running through them and sparking dangerously where they had been discarded, filling the air with static energy.
Frobisher and Jarik were supposed to be in the chamber, getting their transporter ready to be evacuated, apparently, even though a transporter itself, the device did not have the ability to beam itself and not through the heavily shielded ceilings above.
Owens kept low as he continued on the outer walkway until he found a gap between two large computer stations to slip into the center ring. From there he could get a better view of the device. He spotted three small, cylindrical devices, standing about three feet tall which had been set up around the base of the prototype, their cones lit in bright blue. But whoever had set up the pattern enhancers had not finished their task.
The sound of footfalls from the other direction refocused his attention to find the hulking Angosian security officer who had apparently survived the attack of the station’s security measures, even though his uniform was singed and torn-up from the relentless phaser fire he had taken.
And then he saw Frobisher, moving quietly, sneaking up on the security officer.
Owens raised his phaser. “Lieutenant, behind you.”
The Angosian turned to see Frobisher. Both men hesitated for a moment upon seeing each other.
The phaser blast came out of seemingly nowhere but it found its target with pinpoint accuracy, striking the Angosian right above the eyes. He crumbled instantly and fell to the floor, unable to recover from a direct hit to the head.
Owens twisted around trying to find where the blast had originated from. He found no target but fired his weapon anyway in the hopes of flushing out Star.
“Stop shooting, you idiots,” Frobisher cried. “You’re going to hit the accelerator.”
What Owens hadn’t expected was to find the Trill directly behind him instead. He saw the blur of movement just in time to dodge sideways and avoid what looked like a glinting, razor-sharp blade protruding from just under her cuff.
He wasn’t fast enough however to dodge the follow up strike she delivered with her right fist. The impact was unlike anything he had ever felt, like she had bludgeoned him with a pure duranium club. He fell backwards and over a computer console, losing a couple of teeth in the process and dislocating his jar.
He managed to roll as he hit the floor and spat out blood and teeth, desperately trying to ignore the pain from his jaw which was forcing tears into his eyes.
Star wasn’t done and she leaped over the same console effortlessly “I told you people to stay out of this. But you just didn’t want to listen.”
She kicked him hard, causing him to flip over onto his stomach, causing more pain to shoot through his body.
But she had made a mistake, Owens had been able to hold on to his phaser.
He lifted it up to take aim and fired.
Star was fast. So fast in fact that she saw the blast coming and dodged it at the last moment, the beam whizzing past her and smashing into the ceiling instead.
She kicked the phaser right out of his hand.
Then she reached down, grabbed him by the neck with her right hand and pulled him up so effortlessly he may as well have weighted nothing at all.
Her grip was like a vice, threatening to crush his throat.
He still had the strength for maybe one strike and he knew he had to make it count. Remembering whom he was facing, he delivered the punch right to her midsection, slightly off center, with as much force as he could muster.
Star let go of him instantly. She didn’t make any sound but it was obvious from her bulging eyes that he had been right on target, that she had felt the vicious hit against her symbiont.
She stumbled backwards, tripped over a conduit and landed hard onto her back.
“Mike, are you alright?”
He looked towards his brother who had moved to the center of the chamber, looking concerned.
He nodded as she steadied himself against a tall memory unit. “Just … give me a minute.” He needed to find his phaser and finish off Star.
“Don’t know if we have that much time,” he said as he inspected the pattern enhancers set around the prototype. “She’s done something here and I’m not sure what. Almost looks like an automated transport to beam the prototype out of here. I can’t stop it without risking a power surge.”
“Can you … change the coordinates,” he said, every word causing his jaw to explode with hot white pain. He found his phaser and picked it up.
“Maybe,” he said and went to work.
Owens turned back to Star, still lying on the floor. She had pulled herself up onto a sitting position, leaning against a container. The conduit she had tripped over was now by her feet, it looked as if she had repositioned it somehow but it was facing away from him. It wasn’t a treat.
And still Star smiled. “That’s a bit of a dirty trick, don’t you think?”
“Like you are the one to judge.”
“No, you misunderstand,” she said. “I’m quite impressed. Seeing the high and mighty Captain Owens swinging below the belt, as it were.”
He raised his weapon. “It’s over, Star. I want to know what’s going on here. Are you working for the Nyberrites?”
“You know what your problem is?” she said. “You are a hypocrite. The worst kind. You pretend to care for the good of the galaxy, to avoid war, to keep everyone and everything in their place when the truth is obvious to everyone.”
He knew he was baiting her but he couldn’t help himself. “Yeah … what truth is that?”
“You are the most selfish man of them all. All you really care about is protecting your own brother. And you’ve failed,” she said and hit a switch her left hand had been resting on.
Owens fired his phaser but Star let herself drop to her side and he blasted the container behind her instead.
The switch, he realized with sudden panic, had activated the live conduit which erupted with ultra-high voltage electro-plasma. Star’s aim had been perfect.
“Matt!”
He turned to look at Owens but was too slow to try and get out of the way of the lance of energy being hurled his way. It struck him square in the chest, the force of the impact lifted him off the floor and threw him high into the air and backwards. He struck a number of large and bulky pieces of equipment with heavy thuds before he landed somewhere on the far side of the room.
Star now forgotten, Owens sprinted after him, leaping over conduits and equipment and following the trail of his brother’s blood. He found him collapsed and barely alive on the floor and immediately knelt next to him and turned him over onto his back.
“Matt.”
“Mike … I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “Don’t talk, just hang on.”
Owens heard another voice, screaming frantically, but it took a moment to register that it belonged to Frobisher. “Stop her! She’s taking the prototype.”
He looked up to see the other scientist animatedly indicating towards the center of the room where Star had reappeared, working on the pattern enhancers.
“Go,” said Matthew. “Stop her.”
But Owens couldn’t. “I’m not leaving you, I’m getting you help.”
Blood was beginning to pool out of his mouth and nose.
“I’m sorry about, dad,” he said quietly. “And I’m sorry I didn’t … try harder … to reconcile with him. And with you. I was … the bigger brother. I should’ve been the … bigger man.”
“No, stop it. It was my fault too. I was too stubborn, just like the old man. Please, Matt, hang on.”
But Owens could feel the life draining out of his brother’s body.
He looked up again only to see the prototype shimmer out of existence along with two bodies. He couldn’t make them out through his teary eyes.
He tapped his combadge. “Owens to … anyone who can hear me. I need medical assistance right now!”
There was no response and he already knew that it didn’t matter.
His brother was dead.
“Nothing on sensors, sir,” said Stanmore from ops. “All’s quiet.”
“No,” said Owens. “She’s up to something, I know it. Keep your eyes open.”
“Sir, the Cuffe and the Intrepid are approaching. They are hailing us.”
“Put them through.”
“I don’t know what you’re up to, Owens, but you can forget about it,” said Terrence Glover over the audio channel without any preamble.
“I’m going down there.”
“The hell you are.”
Owens glanced at the other two starships rapidly approaching the planet. “They way I see it, Captain, you are outnumbered.”
“Maybe, doesn’t mean I’m going to let you go down there without a fight. Besides, last time I checked you were not being held in the highest esteem even with your own people.”
Jason Aubrey remained suspiciously quiet.
Glover continued. “If it comes to it, I’m fairly certain I can keep you both occupied long enough for Heracles and an entire Guardian fleet to join our party.”
“Let’s agree that our main objective is to keep Tazla Star from this … whatever it is. I know first hand what she is capable of,” said Aubrey. “And I’m also fairly certain that whatever her play here is, she’ll make it before your reinforcements show up.”
“All the more reason to let me go down there and secure the site,” said Owens.
“I’m sending a security team right now,” said Glover.
Owens headed for the turbolift. “Do that. I’ll join them. Or if you prefer, you can try to stop me by starting another fight. But for once, I’m not your enemy, and you know it.” He made a cutting off motion by his throat to indicate to Jose Carlos to disconnect the channel, which he quickly did. “I’m going down there. You have the bridge, Lieutenant. Keep and eye out for Sacajawea, don’t let her come close to the planet.”
“Aye, sir.”
Owens was already in the turbolift, ordering it to the transporter room.
Using the same intelligence data that had permitted him to infiltrate the facility earlier, allowed him to beam right back into the complex. It didn’t take him long to run in Cuffe’s security detail, led by and imposingly large Angosian.
“Secure the facility,” Owens said. “We know Star is going to make a move, but we don’t know where it is going to come from.”
The Angosian who stood nearly a head taller than Owens was momentarily taken back by Owens’ brazen attitude. “You don’t give me orders.”
“Alright, what are your orders?”
“To keep an eye on you.”
Owens smirked and then walked passed the Angosian and his men. “In that case, keep up.”
Owens found his brother, Frobisher and Jarik in one of the labs surrounding their prototype which was housed at the center of an oval room which was visible through a curved, glass wall in the laboratory. It had been the first time Owens had seen the prototype which didn’t look like any transporter he had ever seen. Instead the dull gray device, standing about five meters tall, bugling wide at the bottom and then becoming more narrow the higher it went, look almost like an oversized flower vase.
Frobisher turned on Owens and the security team following him the moment they had entered. “What is the meaning of this, what are you doing back here?”
Owens completely ignored the agitated scientist and glanced at his brother instead. “We know Tazla Star is making a move on the prototype. These men are here to stop her.”
The heavily armed team quickly spread out, taking position all around the lab to have eyes on the high-value target just beyond the room from all possible angles. Owens could see the Angosian talking through his combadge, most likely with Glover in orbit.
“Michael?”
He stepped closer to his brother. “Let me take you out of here, Matt. The risk is too great.”
He shook his head. “I told you before—“
“I know, I know, it’s your life’s work. But tell me what good it does you if you’re no longer around for it?” He glanced at the prototype. “Let’s take you and it out of here.”
“Why should we trust you?” said Frobisher. “You are with the Preservers. You have been sent here to destroy it.”
He nodded, acceding to the point, partially. “Yes. But that was based on intelligence that you were creating an Alpha Weapon. If this is not the case, the mission has changed.”
Frobisher looked skeptical.
But Jarik began to nod slowly. “It is logical,” he said. “We should prepare the device for transport. This location is no longer secure.”
“It’s not that simple and you know that,” said Matthew. “Big Betty is hardwired into the mainframe.”
“How much time do you need to get it ready for transport?” Owens asked.
“If we do it properly, an hour, maybe two,” said Matthew.
“We don’t have that kind of time,” said Owens. “This whole place might be nothing more than rubble in an hour.”
“An emergency separation could be accomplished in less than twenty minutes,” said Jarik.
But Frobisher quickly shook his head. “Not without damaging the prototype.”
Owens was getting frustrated. “Damage can be repaired. Rebuilding this thing from scratch—“
“Near impossible,” offered his brother. “Not with the resources we have left.”
“I shall see to the separation,” said Jarik and then glanced at Frobisher. “Doctor, if you were to assist me we might be able to limit the damage to the prototype.”
Frobisher hesitated, clearly not happy with this plan. But when Matthew gave him a nod to proceed, he hesitantly followed Jarik out of the room, quickly picking up the pace once the Vulcan began to hurry, obviously worried about any irreparable damage he might cause.
“So,” said Matthew. “You came back.”
“For you.”
“Really?”
“Matt, we two are the only family we have left. I know we have not seen eye to eye on things for a very long time—“
“You blamed me for dad.”
“Yes. And I probably shouldn’t have.”
“You are damn right, you shouldn’t have.”
Owens took a deep breath. “Look, I don’t want to fight. Let’s just get you out of here.”
Matthew took a step closer to the transparent wall overlooking his creation. Both Jarik and Frobisher were now working on the equipment, preparing the prototype for transport. “And then what? Do you think I’m so grateful for your rescue that I will come back to your side? The very same people who practically forced me out of my work.”
“I’m sure something can be arranged.”
Matthew uttered a mirthless laugh as he turned back to his brother. “Of course, now that I have a working prototype which turns out is not the weapon to doom us all and bring about a war we cannot win, I’m suddenly a commodity again, right?”
“You stay here and help the Guardians, sooner or later there will be a war. Sooner or later they will push too far. We thought it was going to be with what you’ve built here, but if that’s not what is going to be the lynchpin, the next thing will be. Mark my words.”
“And what exactly is your plan? To stay hidden away on the handful of planets you still control and hope the Nyberrites will let you be? Sticking your heads in the sand? That has never worked. And if I have learned something about the Guardians, they won’t be stopped. Not until the Nyberrites are gone and the Federation is back to what it once was.”
“A refusal to accept reality is not a valid strategy. It’s delusion, plain and simple.”
“I’m not a politician, Mike, and to be honest, I have no interest in any of this. I just want to be able to work on—“
An explosion rocked the facility, causing the floor to tremble so forcefully, Owens nearly lost his footing. “She’s here.”
Matthew ran towards a nearby console and checked the data. “That explosion came from cargo hold two on the west side of the facility.”
“Aubrey to Owens.”
Owens tapped his combadge. “Go ahead.”
“We just registered an explosion below the surface.”
He nodded. “Star is making her move. Have you been able to detect her in orbit?”
“We believe we have a fix on her position and are moving on her now. We’ll provide an update once we know more. Aubrey out.”
Owens noticed that a number of security officers were moving out. “Lieutenant,” he said, addressing the Angosian. “What are you doing? This is obviously a distraction.”
The security chief shot the other man an annoyed glare. “I wasn’t born yesterday, Captain. I’m sending a team to check it out, the rest will stay here and secure the target.”
“Mike.”
Owens looked at his brother who was displaying sudden concern while looking over a computer console. “What?”
“Something is very wrong. The internal security system just turned on.”
“About time.”
Matthew looked up at him. “In this room.”
Owens spotted movement on the ceiling from the corner of his eye. “Move,” he pushed Matthew down and not a moment too soon as a phaser blast fired a hole into the floor where he had stood just a second earlier.
The ceiling erupted with phaser fire, targeting, it seemed, every person in the lab.
Owens picked his brother up again and pushed him towards the exit, looking over his shoulder he could see the security team trying to return fire but the fight was over before it had even started, as one after the other was cut down.
The security chief took at least four or five blasts, before he even stumbled. Owens was impressed by his resilience but kept moving until both he and Matthew had cleared the lab turned death trap, both collapsing in the hallway outside, struggling for air.
“Star must have gained access to the security systems,” said Owens as he looked over his brother. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” he said and he picked himself off the floor. “But I can’t see how she would have been able to do that. Only three people have access to it.”
“Let me guess; you, Frobisher and Jarik.”
He nodded. “But why would—“
“Wake up, Matt, you’ve been betrayed,” said Owens and drew his phaser. “Good thing we know exactly where both of them are. Stay here, I’ll deal with this.”
“Not a chance, I’m coming with you.”
“Matt—“
“I’m done arguing, Mike. This is my work. I won’t abandon it.”
Owens could see that there was no changing his mind on this. “Just stay back and keep your head down. At least one of your friends is not on your side anymore and I have a pretty good idea who it is.”
Matthew shook his head as he followed his brother. “It’s not Wes, I’ve worked with him for decades, he’s as invested in this as I am, he wouldn’t risk everything like this.”
“Never trusted the man,” said Owens. “Who knows what he has been offered.”
The two men reached the central chamber and silently snuck inside. All was quiet. There was no sign of either Frobisher or Jarik. Owens quickly indicate for Matthew to hold position behind a large piece of cooling machinery and out of sight as he crouched low and proceeded further into the room, using whatever he could as cover, phaser at the ready.
The chamber was even bigger than it had appeared from the adjacent lab. Shaped like an oval, the tall prototype stood at its center with at least three rings of walkways surrounding it, along with a great amount of equipment and machinery, all most likely to support Big Betty. He noticed a great many conduits which clearly had been separated in a hurry, some of them, it appeared still had high-voltage electro-plasma running through them and sparking dangerously where they had been discarded, filling the air with static energy.
Frobisher and Jarik were supposed to be in the chamber, getting their transporter ready to be evacuated, apparently, even though a transporter itself, the device did not have the ability to beam itself and not through the heavily shielded ceilings above.
Owens kept low as he continued on the outer walkway until he found a gap between two large computer stations to slip into the center ring. From there he could get a better view of the device. He spotted three small, cylindrical devices, standing about three feet tall which had been set up around the base of the prototype, their cones lit in bright blue. But whoever had set up the pattern enhancers had not finished their task.
The sound of footfalls from the other direction refocused his attention to find the hulking Angosian security officer who had apparently survived the attack of the station’s security measures, even though his uniform was singed and torn-up from the relentless phaser fire he had taken.
And then he saw Frobisher, moving quietly, sneaking up on the security officer.
Owens raised his phaser. “Lieutenant, behind you.”
The Angosian turned to see Frobisher. Both men hesitated for a moment upon seeing each other.
The phaser blast came out of seemingly nowhere but it found its target with pinpoint accuracy, striking the Angosian right above the eyes. He crumbled instantly and fell to the floor, unable to recover from a direct hit to the head.
Owens twisted around trying to find where the blast had originated from. He found no target but fired his weapon anyway in the hopes of flushing out Star.
“Stop shooting, you idiots,” Frobisher cried. “You’re going to hit the accelerator.”
What Owens hadn’t expected was to find the Trill directly behind him instead. He saw the blur of movement just in time to dodge sideways and avoid what looked like a glinting, razor-sharp blade protruding from just under her cuff.
He wasn’t fast enough however to dodge the follow up strike she delivered with her right fist. The impact was unlike anything he had ever felt, like she had bludgeoned him with a pure duranium club. He fell backwards and over a computer console, losing a couple of teeth in the process and dislocating his jar.
He managed to roll as he hit the floor and spat out blood and teeth, desperately trying to ignore the pain from his jaw which was forcing tears into his eyes.
Star wasn’t done and she leaped over the same console effortlessly “I told you people to stay out of this. But you just didn’t want to listen.”
She kicked him hard, causing him to flip over onto his stomach, causing more pain to shoot through his body.
But she had made a mistake, Owens had been able to hold on to his phaser.
He lifted it up to take aim and fired.
Star was fast. So fast in fact that she saw the blast coming and dodged it at the last moment, the beam whizzing past her and smashing into the ceiling instead.
She kicked the phaser right out of his hand.
Then she reached down, grabbed him by the neck with her right hand and pulled him up so effortlessly he may as well have weighted nothing at all.
Her grip was like a vice, threatening to crush his throat.
He still had the strength for maybe one strike and he knew he had to make it count. Remembering whom he was facing, he delivered the punch right to her midsection, slightly off center, with as much force as he could muster.
Star let go of him instantly. She didn’t make any sound but it was obvious from her bulging eyes that he had been right on target, that she had felt the vicious hit against her symbiont.
She stumbled backwards, tripped over a conduit and landed hard onto her back.
“Mike, are you alright?”
He looked towards his brother who had moved to the center of the chamber, looking concerned.
He nodded as she steadied himself against a tall memory unit. “Just … give me a minute.” He needed to find his phaser and finish off Star.
“Don’t know if we have that much time,” he said as he inspected the pattern enhancers set around the prototype. “She’s done something here and I’m not sure what. Almost looks like an automated transport to beam the prototype out of here. I can’t stop it without risking a power surge.”
“Can you … change the coordinates,” he said, every word causing his jaw to explode with hot white pain. He found his phaser and picked it up.
“Maybe,” he said and went to work.
Owens turned back to Star, still lying on the floor. She had pulled herself up onto a sitting position, leaning against a container. The conduit she had tripped over was now by her feet, it looked as if she had repositioned it somehow but it was facing away from him. It wasn’t a treat.
And still Star smiled. “That’s a bit of a dirty trick, don’t you think?”
“Like you are the one to judge.”
“No, you misunderstand,” she said. “I’m quite impressed. Seeing the high and mighty Captain Owens swinging below the belt, as it were.”
He raised his weapon. “It’s over, Star. I want to know what’s going on here. Are you working for the Nyberrites?”
“You know what your problem is?” she said. “You are a hypocrite. The worst kind. You pretend to care for the good of the galaxy, to avoid war, to keep everyone and everything in their place when the truth is obvious to everyone.”
He knew he was baiting her but he couldn’t help himself. “Yeah … what truth is that?”
“You are the most selfish man of them all. All you really care about is protecting your own brother. And you’ve failed,” she said and hit a switch her left hand had been resting on.
Owens fired his phaser but Star let herself drop to her side and he blasted the container behind her instead.
The switch, he realized with sudden panic, had activated the live conduit which erupted with ultra-high voltage electro-plasma. Star’s aim had been perfect.
“Matt!”
He turned to look at Owens but was too slow to try and get out of the way of the lance of energy being hurled his way. It struck him square in the chest, the force of the impact lifted him off the floor and threw him high into the air and backwards. He struck a number of large and bulky pieces of equipment with heavy thuds before he landed somewhere on the far side of the room.
Star now forgotten, Owens sprinted after him, leaping over conduits and equipment and following the trail of his brother’s blood. He found him collapsed and barely alive on the floor and immediately knelt next to him and turned him over onto his back.
“Matt.”
“Mike … I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “Don’t talk, just hang on.”
Owens heard another voice, screaming frantically, but it took a moment to register that it belonged to Frobisher. “Stop her! She’s taking the prototype.”
He looked up to see the other scientist animatedly indicating towards the center of the room where Star had reappeared, working on the pattern enhancers.
“Go,” said Matthew. “Stop her.”
But Owens couldn’t. “I’m not leaving you, I’m getting you help.”
Blood was beginning to pool out of his mouth and nose.
“I’m sorry about, dad,” he said quietly. “And I’m sorry I didn’t … try harder … to reconcile with him. And with you. I was … the bigger brother. I should’ve been the … bigger man.”
“No, stop it. It was my fault too. I was too stubborn, just like the old man. Please, Matt, hang on.”
But Owens could feel the life draining out of his brother’s body.
He looked up again only to see the prototype shimmer out of existence along with two bodies. He couldn’t make them out through his teary eyes.
He tapped his combadge. “Owens to … anyone who can hear me. I need medical assistance right now!”
There was no response and he already knew that it didn’t matter.
His brother was dead.
* * *
10 minutes earlier
“Whatever you do, Tai, do not let him out of your sight,” Terrence Glover told his security chief on the surface over a comlink on the bridge. “As far as I’m concern he is our enemy and the only reason he’s not in custody already is because of the rather tenuous situation up here,” he added and then glanced at his tactical display which confirmed Eagle and Intrepid currently the only other vessels orbiting Panea, clearly outnumbering him.
“He won’t make a move without me knowing it, sir.”
“Make sure he doesn’t. Cuffe out.”
Glover glanced towards his operations officer. “Detmer, what’s the ETA on our reinforcements getting here.”
The young ensign checked her board. “The Heracles and the rapid response team will arrive in approximately twenty minutes.”
Glover uttered a barely suppressed sigh. “Not much of a rapid response, is it? This will all be over in twenty minutes.”
Nobody on the bridge offered a comment.
“Sir, I’m detecting a starship signature consistent with a New Orleans-class frigate,” said the Benzite tactical officer Meldin.
“Sacajawea,” said Glover. “Where is she?”
“According to sensors, the ship is holding position on the far side of the moon,” said Detmer.
“And conveniently out of reach,” said Glover and activated a comm channel to Intrepid. “Aubrey, Star’s here.”
“We’ve seen her.”
“We need to finish her for once and for all.”
The other captain didn’t respond to this.
“Did you hear me, Aubrey?”
“I heard you fine, Captain. I just don’t agree.”
“Honestly, I don’t see how you could not,” said Glover. “She is a menace and responsible for destroying one starship and murdering her crew already. If she gets the chance she’s likely to kill hundreds more on the surface. I’m not going to let that happen.”
“And I’m not saying that she doesn’t need to be stopped, it’s why we’re here,” said Aubrey. “But I have no plans of destroying her. And I won’t let you do it either. I want Star to answer for what she has done. Am I clear?”
Glover smirked. “For now. But things will change quite a bit in about twenty minutes or so.”
“Something tells me she’ll make her move before that.”
“Yes,” said Glover. “So we need to make ours before she can. But this could be just another of her diversions. Can you use your sensor array to at least tell us if she’s the real thing?”
“Not at this distance and we’d need Gibraltar for that. She’s still engages with the holographic fleet.”
“Figures. The one time we need Sandhurst and he’s nowhere to be found. In that case I suggest you and Eagle move to intercept her. If you close in from two sides you stand a better chance of cutting her off before she can run.”
“And leave you here alone? Not crazy about that plan, Captain.”
Glover leaned back in his chair, that smile still on his face, even if the other captain was not able to see it. “I would go myself, but if I do, I can make not guarantees as to what happens to her and her ship once I catch up with her.”
Aubrey’s hesitation told Glover that he had won the argument before he had even started to speak again. “You stay on point. And I expect you to stick to our agreement.”
“Scout’s honor,” said Glover, still smiling. “I won’t go after Owens. But I can’t guarantee his safety once the rest of my people get here.”
“We’ll have Star in custody before that. Intrepid out.”
Glover watched the tactical display, seeing the other two starships moving out, and just as he had suggested, they had split up to circumnavigate around Panea from opposite sides in order to get to Sacajawea.
“Red alert, raise shields.”
Mendin didn’t hesitate to follow the order but still found himself baffled by the move. “Sir?”
“Star is up to something and I want to be ready.”
“Donar to Cuffe.”
“Go ahead, Lieutenant.”
“There’s been an explosion at one of the cargo holds down here.”
“Star’s doing no doubt,” said Glover.
“Yes, sir. It’s a classical diversion maneuver, sir. I think we should stay put and continue to protect the prototype.”
“Agreed. But I don’t want to play in her hand if that’s her plan. Send a small team to investigate, I’ll send reinforcements. It looks like whatever she is up to, she’s planning to infiltrate the complex instead of taking it out from orbit.”
“Understood, sir. I will—watch out—“
The sound of phaser fire and screams interrupted the security officer.
Glover jumped onto his feet. “Lieutenant, what’s going on?”
But the channel had gone dead.
He walked over to the ops station with just a few large strides. “Detmer, get him back right now.”
But the ensign shook her head. “I can’t, he’s no longer responding.”
“What the hell is going on down there?” said Glover as he glanced up at the screen which currently told him nothing other than to show the deceptively peaceful looking moon below. He turned back to Detmer. “I want the second security team down there on—“
“Captain, ship detected directly aft,” Mendes nearly shouted.
“What? Full evasive. Break orbit. Do it, do it now.”
Cuffe lurched forward suddenly with such speed, Glover nearly lost his footing.
“Incoming!”
He also felt the hits against the shields. Phaser fire, he knew straight way. Multiple hits. On the screen the image shifted to an aft view to show the attacker. He wasn’t totally surprised to find it was Sacajawea. “Return fire.”
But for now Cuffe was on the back foot and the Guardian ship, despite its smaller size, packed a serious punch, clearly having been upgraded significantly.
“Shields down to seventy percent,” Meldin reported. “She is evading our fire.”
“Hardcastle,” Glover barked at his helmsman. “Full impulse, put some distance between us,” then he whipped towards his tactical officer. “As soon as we are at minimum safety distance, I want a full spread of torps on the target.”
“Sir,” Detmer said, looking up at the captain. “According to the Aldeberan Accords—“
“Stuff the Accords,” Glover shot back. “We are blowing her out of the stars.”
But things were moving too slowly for Glover as he looked at the screen to watch the space between them grow larger at a far too sluggish pace. “Distance?”
“Thirty-three kilometers, sir,” said Hardcastle.
“Good enough.”
“Minimum safety distance is forty kilometers, sir,” said Detmer but a pointed look by Glover caused her to quickly focus on her instruments again.
“Fire.”
The photon torpedoes raced towards their target, six of them, four finding their mark and flaring brightly against Sacajawea’s shields on impact and causing a minor shockwave which could be felt all the way on Cuffe’s bridge.
Glover kept his feet and refused to return to his chair. “Again.”
Of the next set, only three hit, slowing the other ship but not before she was able to move well inside the range which would have made another barrage of torpedoes a suicide maneuver for Cuffe.
“Keep up firing all phasers. Engage attack pattern Glover-Four.”
The ship shook hard from incoming phaser fire.
“Shields down to sixty percent. Sacajawea is at fifty-three,” reported the Benzite tactical officer.
Glover nodded. “Don’t let up.”
But he quickly realized that they didn’t have a choice. Sacajawea shimmered out of existence right in front of his eyes. “Damn it, don’t tell me she’s another hologram.”
Detmer shook her head. “Negative, I’ve scanned for photonic energy signatures. This is more consistent with a cloaking device.”
“A cloaking device, huh? Tell me ensign what do the Aldebaran Accords have to say about that one?”
“They are illegal, sir.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. She’s just full of surprises, isn’t she? Quite frankly I’m getting sick of it,” said Glover as his eyes pierced the view screen as if he could reveal the hidden ship by force of will alone.
“Sir, we have multiple vessels approaching,” said Mendes.
“Schwarzkopf ahead of schedule?”
“No, sir, it’s Agamemnon, Gibraltar and Bluefin.”
“Guess they must have dealt with Star’s other parlor trick.”
“I’m also reading Intrepid and Eagle returning at high speed.”
Glover nodded and then walked back to his chair, quickly opening a channel. “Looks like the gang is all back together,” he said, unable to hide the sarcasm in his tone. “Listen up, Star is in a cloaked vessel, damaged but still skulking around. She can probably hear this too so I’m keeping this brief. Donald, I know you have a fancy sensor array on board. Use it and give us a target. Any second we delay is another second she will be able to fulfill her mission.”
Surprisingly he didn’t have to wait long at all, nor did he get any kind of backtalk from Gibraltar’s captain this time around. Instead, for just a brief moment, the space around Cuffe lit up brightly and the tactical viewer revealed a number of objects which hadn’t been there before. One of them looked very much like the frigate they had just fought against.
And his was the closest ship.
“Mendes, target that location and fire a full spread of torpedoes.”
“Torpedoes away.”
Five projectiles impacted against what at first looked like nothing but empty space. But only for a second. Then Sacajawea reappeared, multiple explosions erupting from her hull.
“Direct hit, she’s suffered structural damage.”
Glover spotted the bright blue light erupting from the other ship before any of his officers could report it, and instantly knew what it was. “Maximum evasive!”
He had spent enough time in combat to know it wasn’t going to be fast enough to avoid the incoming quantum torpedo.
It slammed into Cuffe’s ventral saucer section even as she tried to spin out of its path. The impact threw him out of his chair and caused a number of stations on the bridge to blow out from a powerful energy feedback.
Glover pulled himself back onto his feet, ignoring the putrid smell of burned plastics and the acrid smoke stinging his eyes. He ignored Hardcastle lying on the floor near his station with what looked like a fatal head wound and instead moved towards the tactical station. He didn’t see the Benzite but he didn’t look for him either. He leaped over the railing separating him from the tactical console and then quickly took control.
The displays were showing a sea of red, indicating numerous systems failing or already destroyed. The targeting system was one of them. He didn’t need it.
Sacajawea was in bad shape herself and not moving. No challenge at all to target manually.
He armed the most powerful weapon in Cuffe’s arsenal.
“Glover, this is Aubrey. Do not destroy the Sacajawea.”
“Good luck trying to stop me,” he said. Intrepid was still out of range as were all the other ships.
“Burn in hell, Tazla Star.”
Glover activated the commit panel and released the tri-cobalt device.
Traveling much slower than a torpedo, it seemed to take forever for the warhead to cross the space between the two ships.
Once it had, it ripped Sacajawea to shreds with an explosion so bright Glover was forced to shield his eyes.
“Whatever you do, Tai, do not let him out of your sight,” Terrence Glover told his security chief on the surface over a comlink on the bridge. “As far as I’m concern he is our enemy and the only reason he’s not in custody already is because of the rather tenuous situation up here,” he added and then glanced at his tactical display which confirmed Eagle and Intrepid currently the only other vessels orbiting Panea, clearly outnumbering him.
“He won’t make a move without me knowing it, sir.”
“Make sure he doesn’t. Cuffe out.”
Glover glanced towards his operations officer. “Detmer, what’s the ETA on our reinforcements getting here.”
The young ensign checked her board. “The Heracles and the rapid response team will arrive in approximately twenty minutes.”
Glover uttered a barely suppressed sigh. “Not much of a rapid response, is it? This will all be over in twenty minutes.”
Nobody on the bridge offered a comment.
“Sir, I’m detecting a starship signature consistent with a New Orleans-class frigate,” said the Benzite tactical officer Meldin.
“Sacajawea,” said Glover. “Where is she?”
“According to sensors, the ship is holding position on the far side of the moon,” said Detmer.
“And conveniently out of reach,” said Glover and activated a comm channel to Intrepid. “Aubrey, Star’s here.”
“We’ve seen her.”
“We need to finish her for once and for all.”
The other captain didn’t respond to this.
“Did you hear me, Aubrey?”
“I heard you fine, Captain. I just don’t agree.”
“Honestly, I don’t see how you could not,” said Glover. “She is a menace and responsible for destroying one starship and murdering her crew already. If she gets the chance she’s likely to kill hundreds more on the surface. I’m not going to let that happen.”
“And I’m not saying that she doesn’t need to be stopped, it’s why we’re here,” said Aubrey. “But I have no plans of destroying her. And I won’t let you do it either. I want Star to answer for what she has done. Am I clear?”
Glover smirked. “For now. But things will change quite a bit in about twenty minutes or so.”
“Something tells me she’ll make her move before that.”
“Yes,” said Glover. “So we need to make ours before she can. But this could be just another of her diversions. Can you use your sensor array to at least tell us if she’s the real thing?”
“Not at this distance and we’d need Gibraltar for that. She’s still engages with the holographic fleet.”
“Figures. The one time we need Sandhurst and he’s nowhere to be found. In that case I suggest you and Eagle move to intercept her. If you close in from two sides you stand a better chance of cutting her off before she can run.”
“And leave you here alone? Not crazy about that plan, Captain.”
Glover leaned back in his chair, that smile still on his face, even if the other captain was not able to see it. “I would go myself, but if I do, I can make not guarantees as to what happens to her and her ship once I catch up with her.”
Aubrey’s hesitation told Glover that he had won the argument before he had even started to speak again. “You stay on point. And I expect you to stick to our agreement.”
“Scout’s honor,” said Glover, still smiling. “I won’t go after Owens. But I can’t guarantee his safety once the rest of my people get here.”
“We’ll have Star in custody before that. Intrepid out.”
Glover watched the tactical display, seeing the other two starships moving out, and just as he had suggested, they had split up to circumnavigate around Panea from opposite sides in order to get to Sacajawea.
“Red alert, raise shields.”
Mendin didn’t hesitate to follow the order but still found himself baffled by the move. “Sir?”
“Star is up to something and I want to be ready.”
“Donar to Cuffe.”
“Go ahead, Lieutenant.”
“There’s been an explosion at one of the cargo holds down here.”
“Star’s doing no doubt,” said Glover.
“Yes, sir. It’s a classical diversion maneuver, sir. I think we should stay put and continue to protect the prototype.”
“Agreed. But I don’t want to play in her hand if that’s her plan. Send a small team to investigate, I’ll send reinforcements. It looks like whatever she is up to, she’s planning to infiltrate the complex instead of taking it out from orbit.”
“Understood, sir. I will—watch out—“
The sound of phaser fire and screams interrupted the security officer.
Glover jumped onto his feet. “Lieutenant, what’s going on?”
But the channel had gone dead.
He walked over to the ops station with just a few large strides. “Detmer, get him back right now.”
But the ensign shook her head. “I can’t, he’s no longer responding.”
“What the hell is going on down there?” said Glover as he glanced up at the screen which currently told him nothing other than to show the deceptively peaceful looking moon below. He turned back to Detmer. “I want the second security team down there on—“
“Captain, ship detected directly aft,” Mendes nearly shouted.
“What? Full evasive. Break orbit. Do it, do it now.”
Cuffe lurched forward suddenly with such speed, Glover nearly lost his footing.
“Incoming!”
He also felt the hits against the shields. Phaser fire, he knew straight way. Multiple hits. On the screen the image shifted to an aft view to show the attacker. He wasn’t totally surprised to find it was Sacajawea. “Return fire.”
But for now Cuffe was on the back foot and the Guardian ship, despite its smaller size, packed a serious punch, clearly having been upgraded significantly.
“Shields down to seventy percent,” Meldin reported. “She is evading our fire.”
“Hardcastle,” Glover barked at his helmsman. “Full impulse, put some distance between us,” then he whipped towards his tactical officer. “As soon as we are at minimum safety distance, I want a full spread of torps on the target.”
“Sir,” Detmer said, looking up at the captain. “According to the Aldeberan Accords—“
“Stuff the Accords,” Glover shot back. “We are blowing her out of the stars.”
But things were moving too slowly for Glover as he looked at the screen to watch the space between them grow larger at a far too sluggish pace. “Distance?”
“Thirty-three kilometers, sir,” said Hardcastle.
“Good enough.”
“Minimum safety distance is forty kilometers, sir,” said Detmer but a pointed look by Glover caused her to quickly focus on her instruments again.
“Fire.”
The photon torpedoes raced towards their target, six of them, four finding their mark and flaring brightly against Sacajawea’s shields on impact and causing a minor shockwave which could be felt all the way on Cuffe’s bridge.
Glover kept his feet and refused to return to his chair. “Again.”
Of the next set, only three hit, slowing the other ship but not before she was able to move well inside the range which would have made another barrage of torpedoes a suicide maneuver for Cuffe.
“Keep up firing all phasers. Engage attack pattern Glover-Four.”
The ship shook hard from incoming phaser fire.
“Shields down to sixty percent. Sacajawea is at fifty-three,” reported the Benzite tactical officer.
Glover nodded. “Don’t let up.”
But he quickly realized that they didn’t have a choice. Sacajawea shimmered out of existence right in front of his eyes. “Damn it, don’t tell me she’s another hologram.”
Detmer shook her head. “Negative, I’ve scanned for photonic energy signatures. This is more consistent with a cloaking device.”
“A cloaking device, huh? Tell me ensign what do the Aldebaran Accords have to say about that one?”
“They are illegal, sir.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. She’s just full of surprises, isn’t she? Quite frankly I’m getting sick of it,” said Glover as his eyes pierced the view screen as if he could reveal the hidden ship by force of will alone.
“Sir, we have multiple vessels approaching,” said Mendes.
“Schwarzkopf ahead of schedule?”
“No, sir, it’s Agamemnon, Gibraltar and Bluefin.”
“Guess they must have dealt with Star’s other parlor trick.”
“I’m also reading Intrepid and Eagle returning at high speed.”
Glover nodded and then walked back to his chair, quickly opening a channel. “Looks like the gang is all back together,” he said, unable to hide the sarcasm in his tone. “Listen up, Star is in a cloaked vessel, damaged but still skulking around. She can probably hear this too so I’m keeping this brief. Donald, I know you have a fancy sensor array on board. Use it and give us a target. Any second we delay is another second she will be able to fulfill her mission.”
Surprisingly he didn’t have to wait long at all, nor did he get any kind of backtalk from Gibraltar’s captain this time around. Instead, for just a brief moment, the space around Cuffe lit up brightly and the tactical viewer revealed a number of objects which hadn’t been there before. One of them looked very much like the frigate they had just fought against.
And his was the closest ship.
“Mendes, target that location and fire a full spread of torpedoes.”
“Torpedoes away.”
Five projectiles impacted against what at first looked like nothing but empty space. But only for a second. Then Sacajawea reappeared, multiple explosions erupting from her hull.
“Direct hit, she’s suffered structural damage.”
Glover spotted the bright blue light erupting from the other ship before any of his officers could report it, and instantly knew what it was. “Maximum evasive!”
He had spent enough time in combat to know it wasn’t going to be fast enough to avoid the incoming quantum torpedo.
It slammed into Cuffe’s ventral saucer section even as she tried to spin out of its path. The impact threw him out of his chair and caused a number of stations on the bridge to blow out from a powerful energy feedback.
Glover pulled himself back onto his feet, ignoring the putrid smell of burned plastics and the acrid smoke stinging his eyes. He ignored Hardcastle lying on the floor near his station with what looked like a fatal head wound and instead moved towards the tactical station. He didn’t see the Benzite but he didn’t look for him either. He leaped over the railing separating him from the tactical console and then quickly took control.
The displays were showing a sea of red, indicating numerous systems failing or already destroyed. The targeting system was one of them. He didn’t need it.
Sacajawea was in bad shape herself and not moving. No challenge at all to target manually.
He armed the most powerful weapon in Cuffe’s arsenal.
“Glover, this is Aubrey. Do not destroy the Sacajawea.”
“Good luck trying to stop me,” he said. Intrepid was still out of range as were all the other ships.
“Burn in hell, Tazla Star.”
Glover activated the commit panel and released the tri-cobalt device.
Traveling much slower than a torpedo, it seemed to take forever for the warhead to cross the space between the two ships.
Once it had, it ripped Sacajawea to shreds with an explosion so bright Glover was forced to shield his eyes.
The stakes just went higher. We have Glover apparently destroying the Sacajawea and her crew. Now Owens' brother is dead before he had a chance to fully reconcile with him.
As an added stocking-stuffer, we have Star (after a greatly written combat sequence) taking the Alpha Weapon / Transporter whatsy-hoosit and getting away. Whatever this damn thing really is, it must be dangerous so I'm not thrilled with Sunshine getting hold of it.
This AU is coming apart at the seams. I can't help but to wonder how much longer this version of Michael Owens can weather the damage to his ideals and optimism. Will he hold fast and unite the shredded factions of Starfleet, or become a jaded survivalist like so many others?
Keep the fun coming!
As an added stocking-stuffer, we have Star (after a greatly written combat sequence) taking the Alpha Weapon / Transporter whatsy-hoosit and getting away. Whatever this damn thing really is, it must be dangerous so I'm not thrilled with Sunshine getting hold of it.
This AU is coming apart at the seams. I can't help but to wonder how much longer this version of Michael Owens can weather the damage to his ideals and optimism. Will he hold fast and unite the shredded factions of Starfleet, or become a jaded survivalist like so many others?
Keep the fun coming!
10/10 – “The End is Only the Beginning.”
“This is a complete and utter disaster, a total mission failure and an entirely unacceptable outcome due to either gross inaptitude or blatant indifference to follow orders. I would class this, in fact, as nothing less than dereliction of duty at worst and flagrant incompetence at best.”
The meeting room was quiet following Deputy Director Altee’s outburst. The Deltan’s bald head had turned a noticeable shade of red as he paced behind the sitting Admiral Krystine Leone, and intermittently throwing dark scowls towards the only other two persons in attendance.
But neither Donald Sandhurst nor Jason Aubrey showed any outward signs of being even the slightest bit impressed by the tirade.
Altee finally stopped moving to direct his full attention towards the two starship captains. “We could not have stressed the significance of this mission any clearer. The enormous implications not just for us but for the galaxy as a whole. You were in this very room when this was discussed and yet you clearly decided to willfully ignore all of this. I cannot even begin to comprehend the damage that has been done by your actions.”
“Our actions?” Aubrey said and then shot a disbelieving look at Sandhurst, as if to check if by chance he had misheard. “May I remind you that this thing started to go sideways the moment Tazla Star, the person you entrusted with leading this mission, decided to go off the reservation by blowing up a Guardian ship.”
Altee shook his head. “My understanding is that her actions were justified in order to prevent the Orion from alerting the Guardians of our mission.”
“Yeah, that worked real well, didn’t it?” said Sandhurst.
“It would have if Captain Owens hadn’t decided to take matters in his own hands and infiltrate the target by himself,” Altee continued, no less enraged, before he shot daggers at Leone. “And where is Owens anyway? Why is he not here? I expect significant disciplinary actions to be brought against that man.”
“Captain Owens is burying his brother,” Leone said calmly and then looked at the Deltan. “I will deal with any disciplinary issues once he returns to active duty.”
“As far as I’m concerned, he has no business ever returning to duty.”
“With all due respect, Director, that is not up to you. You have no authority over my officers and I will discipline them according to regulations and how I see fit.”
“I will lodge a formal complaint with Starfleet Command over this.”
Leone nodded. “That is your prerogative.”
They continued to stare at each other for a moment but no further words were exchanged on the subject.
“This doesn’t address Tazla Star’s actions,” said Aubrey. “I don’t care if what she did was for the good of the mission. The Aldeberan Accords are there for a reason and Star blatantly defied them, killing dozens of lives in the process.”
But Altee just waved him off. “So what? Even if I were to agree with you, Sacajawea is gone and so is Star. What do you expect? A posthumous censure?”
“No, but we know that Star was working for somebody else, most likely the Nyberrites. Don’t you think that should be your focus now?” Aubrey said.
“Nothing you have presented me here today is evidence that Tazla Star was a traitor.”
“Yes,” Sandhurst mumbled under his breath. “Funny how all possible evidence was conveniently destroyed with her ship.”
Aubrey was not yet willing to let this go. “You’ve been talking a lot about our failures, Director, but what about yours?” Aubrey continued, ignoring the man’s indignation at those words. “The fact that this was never about a so-called Alpha Weapon in the first place.”
He just shook his head. “And who precisely told you this wasn’t a weapon? The very same people developing it. Of course they wouldn’t admit to this. Of course they wouldn’t just tell you that they were building a weapon that could destabilized the entire quadrant.”
“Not that any of this matters now, right?” said Sandhurst. “Considering that the prototype and two-thirds of the developing team are gone. Which I thought was the entire point of this mission. Quite frankly that makes me wonder if your outrage might not be so much related to the loss of the prototype but by the fact that you didn’t get your hands on it first.”
“You are out of line, Captain. Way out of line. And I suggest you remember your place, seeing that after the political mess you have created by your actions, your career, all your careers are on the thinnest of ice,” he said. He let those words linger for a moment and then shot Leone one last look. “This is not going to be the end of this, Admiral.” He left he room without another word.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met a more pompous ass in all my life. No way he’s a real Deltan,” said Aubrey, staring at the doors which had closed in Altee’s wake. “My money is that he just shaves his head and uses a very powerful cologne.”
Leone glared at Aubrey, obviously not in the mood for jokes. “He is right about one thing. Politically this is a nightmare and the diplomats haven’t stopped shouting at each other since the news first broke. We may have avoided a greater conflict with the Nyberrites, but it hasn’t helped our current conflict at all. If anything it has made matters worse.”
“The Nyberrites may already know much more than we thought they did. If Star truly did work for them from the beginning, I think it would be fair to assume that they knew much more than even we did about what the Guardians were up to. Which means they are probably laughing right now, while they sit back and watch as we continue to fight amongst ourselves,” said Sandhurst.
Aubrey nodded. “Waiting to swoop in and pick up the pieces.”
Sandhurst looked at Leone. “What about Owens? What about us for that matter? Director Altee sounded like a man on a mission. And if he has his way, we’ll all be filling out job applications before the day is out.”
Leone stood from her chair. “Let me worry about Altee. I’m fairly certain his bark is far worse than his bite. Besides Starfleet cannot afford losing anyone, and certainly not three of our most experienced starship captains. There will be reprimands of course, but I cannot see it go any further than that.”
With Leone clearly having signaled the end of this meeting, the other two captains stood as well.
“All things considered, this could have ended a lot worse for everyone,” said Aubrey. “Perhaps we should consider ourselves lucky that this is as bad as it got.”
“Something tells me we’re still not seeing the full picture here,” said Sandhurst. “There is another shoe that hasn’t quite dropped yet.”
Aubrey smirked. “That’s what I love about you, Donald. The eternal optimist.”
Two Weeks Later
Arkaria IX was a mostly unremarkable, class L planet with no native population, sentient or otherwise, generally inhospitable weather patterns and partially covered by toxic oceans and vegetation. The system formed part of the outer rim of Federation space in the Beta Quadrant, and its only significant contribution to interstellar traffic was the Remmler Array orbiting Arkaria Prime which was designed to deliver cleansing bayron sweeps for starships returning from the nearby Amargosa Diaspora, a sector of space so dense with stars, the resulting interstellar radiation could lead to a significant build up of dangerous bayron particles on starship’s hulls.
And while Arkaria Prime hosted a large, advanced native population, the ninth planet of the system was officially uninhabited. According to the highly superstitious Arkarians, this small and prosaic world was the home of evil spirits who rested there before continuing onto their final journey into the depth of the Diaspora where they would burn up under the bright and hot light of its various powerful suns.
Tazla Star did not consider herself to be such a spirit but was under no illusions that many people she had met during her current lifetime would not have hesitated to call her one.
She cared little about what other people thought of her but she couldn’t help and wonder if there wasn’t a kernel of truth to the Arkanians archaic believes, considering the expansive and well hidden tunnel network she was traversing underneath the planet’s surface with its intricately designed rooms and corridors, all of which predated the modern Arkanian society by a few millennia and leading her to strongly suspect that some alien race had indeed once dwelt on this world, or at least made this world an outpost.
She entered a particularly large hall, the ceiling reaching up nearly ten meters and the sparse lighting which failed to illuminate the entire breadth, length or height of the room giving it a particularly ominous vibe.
“I take it you did not come empty handed,” said a voice from the shadows.
She looked around but wasn’t able to see the person who had spoken. The voice seemed to bounce off the high walls from every which way. She raised a compact padd she had brought and quickly entered a code.
Not a moment later the prototype she had been sent to retrieve shimmered into existence just a few meters from her.
“A shame about your ship.”
“Yes, quite. I’d grown fond of her. Good crew. .”
“The Orion? Was that necessary?”
She shrugged. “In hindsight, I guess not. But at the time it seemed like the right decision. Had it not been for Owens and the rest of them, this could have all gone so much smoother.”
“You adapted and handled it.”
“It’s what I do.”
“Where’s Mister Jarik?”
“He’s here. He proved pretty useful. His intelligence on the facility was flawless. Sharing it with the others in your task force however was not a good idea. Owens could have ruined everything.”
The voice didn’t respond straight away. “His inclusion was not my idea. He was forced on me by Leone. The man knows how to play his connections, even after his father died.”
Star looked at the prototype beside her. “So, mind clueing me in on why we need a long-range transporter? Are you planning on beaming an army onto the Nyberrite homeworld?
Altee stepped out of the shadows, smiling broadly. “Your imagination, my dear Taz, still suffers from an acute lack of scale. You continue to think in three or four dimensions when you really should be thinking beyond those constrictions.”
She looked puzzled by this. “Wait, you are saying there is a fifth dimension?”
“Of course there is,” said Altee. “And whoever controls access to it, controls everything. While the Guardians and Preservers keep squabbling over scraps, we will be in a position to shape the future of the entire galaxy.”
Star looked back at the unassuming device. “With this thing?”
“It will function as our gateway. This marvel will allow us to open doors we never even knew existed. It will turn the dark ages we have lived through ever since the Borg into nothing more than a distant memory.
They don’t believe this to be a weapon when in fact it just might be the greatest weapon ever invented. With it we will not just restore the Federation to its former glory, we will surpass it in ways nobody has ever even imagined. Today marks the first step in building an empire for the ages, Taz, one in which all the people in this galaxy will bow to us.”
“To us or to you?”
Altee’s only response was a beaming smile.
Thank you to everyone who has read and commented on this story and again, special thanks to Bry Sinclair, DarKush, Galen, Michael Garcia, Sam Redfeather and The LoneRedShirt.
The Road to Quantum Divergence continues in just a few weeks with the third Star Eagle Adventures vignette series, Homecoming.
“This is a complete and utter disaster, a total mission failure and an entirely unacceptable outcome due to either gross inaptitude or blatant indifference to follow orders. I would class this, in fact, as nothing less than dereliction of duty at worst and flagrant incompetence at best.”
The meeting room was quiet following Deputy Director Altee’s outburst. The Deltan’s bald head had turned a noticeable shade of red as he paced behind the sitting Admiral Krystine Leone, and intermittently throwing dark scowls towards the only other two persons in attendance.
But neither Donald Sandhurst nor Jason Aubrey showed any outward signs of being even the slightest bit impressed by the tirade.
Altee finally stopped moving to direct his full attention towards the two starship captains. “We could not have stressed the significance of this mission any clearer. The enormous implications not just for us but for the galaxy as a whole. You were in this very room when this was discussed and yet you clearly decided to willfully ignore all of this. I cannot even begin to comprehend the damage that has been done by your actions.”
“Our actions?” Aubrey said and then shot a disbelieving look at Sandhurst, as if to check if by chance he had misheard. “May I remind you that this thing started to go sideways the moment Tazla Star, the person you entrusted with leading this mission, decided to go off the reservation by blowing up a Guardian ship.”
Altee shook his head. “My understanding is that her actions were justified in order to prevent the Orion from alerting the Guardians of our mission.”
“Yeah, that worked real well, didn’t it?” said Sandhurst.
“It would have if Captain Owens hadn’t decided to take matters in his own hands and infiltrate the target by himself,” Altee continued, no less enraged, before he shot daggers at Leone. “And where is Owens anyway? Why is he not here? I expect significant disciplinary actions to be brought against that man.”
“Captain Owens is burying his brother,” Leone said calmly and then looked at the Deltan. “I will deal with any disciplinary issues once he returns to active duty.”
“As far as I’m concerned, he has no business ever returning to duty.”
“With all due respect, Director, that is not up to you. You have no authority over my officers and I will discipline them according to regulations and how I see fit.”
“I will lodge a formal complaint with Starfleet Command over this.”
Leone nodded. “That is your prerogative.”
They continued to stare at each other for a moment but no further words were exchanged on the subject.
“This doesn’t address Tazla Star’s actions,” said Aubrey. “I don’t care if what she did was for the good of the mission. The Aldeberan Accords are there for a reason and Star blatantly defied them, killing dozens of lives in the process.”
But Altee just waved him off. “So what? Even if I were to agree with you, Sacajawea is gone and so is Star. What do you expect? A posthumous censure?”
“No, but we know that Star was working for somebody else, most likely the Nyberrites. Don’t you think that should be your focus now?” Aubrey said.
“Nothing you have presented me here today is evidence that Tazla Star was a traitor.”
“Yes,” Sandhurst mumbled under his breath. “Funny how all possible evidence was conveniently destroyed with her ship.”
Aubrey was not yet willing to let this go. “You’ve been talking a lot about our failures, Director, but what about yours?” Aubrey continued, ignoring the man’s indignation at those words. “The fact that this was never about a so-called Alpha Weapon in the first place.”
He just shook his head. “And who precisely told you this wasn’t a weapon? The very same people developing it. Of course they wouldn’t admit to this. Of course they wouldn’t just tell you that they were building a weapon that could destabilized the entire quadrant.”
“Not that any of this matters now, right?” said Sandhurst. “Considering that the prototype and two-thirds of the developing team are gone. Which I thought was the entire point of this mission. Quite frankly that makes me wonder if your outrage might not be so much related to the loss of the prototype but by the fact that you didn’t get your hands on it first.”
“You are out of line, Captain. Way out of line. And I suggest you remember your place, seeing that after the political mess you have created by your actions, your career, all your careers are on the thinnest of ice,” he said. He let those words linger for a moment and then shot Leone one last look. “This is not going to be the end of this, Admiral.” He left he room without another word.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met a more pompous ass in all my life. No way he’s a real Deltan,” said Aubrey, staring at the doors which had closed in Altee’s wake. “My money is that he just shaves his head and uses a very powerful cologne.”
Leone glared at Aubrey, obviously not in the mood for jokes. “He is right about one thing. Politically this is a nightmare and the diplomats haven’t stopped shouting at each other since the news first broke. We may have avoided a greater conflict with the Nyberrites, but it hasn’t helped our current conflict at all. If anything it has made matters worse.”
“The Nyberrites may already know much more than we thought they did. If Star truly did work for them from the beginning, I think it would be fair to assume that they knew much more than even we did about what the Guardians were up to. Which means they are probably laughing right now, while they sit back and watch as we continue to fight amongst ourselves,” said Sandhurst.
Aubrey nodded. “Waiting to swoop in and pick up the pieces.”
Sandhurst looked at Leone. “What about Owens? What about us for that matter? Director Altee sounded like a man on a mission. And if he has his way, we’ll all be filling out job applications before the day is out.”
Leone stood from her chair. “Let me worry about Altee. I’m fairly certain his bark is far worse than his bite. Besides Starfleet cannot afford losing anyone, and certainly not three of our most experienced starship captains. There will be reprimands of course, but I cannot see it go any further than that.”
With Leone clearly having signaled the end of this meeting, the other two captains stood as well.
“All things considered, this could have ended a lot worse for everyone,” said Aubrey. “Perhaps we should consider ourselves lucky that this is as bad as it got.”
“Something tells me we’re still not seeing the full picture here,” said Sandhurst. “There is another shoe that hasn’t quite dropped yet.”
Aubrey smirked. “That’s what I love about you, Donald. The eternal optimist.”
* * *
Two Weeks Later
Arkaria IX was a mostly unremarkable, class L planet with no native population, sentient or otherwise, generally inhospitable weather patterns and partially covered by toxic oceans and vegetation. The system formed part of the outer rim of Federation space in the Beta Quadrant, and its only significant contribution to interstellar traffic was the Remmler Array orbiting Arkaria Prime which was designed to deliver cleansing bayron sweeps for starships returning from the nearby Amargosa Diaspora, a sector of space so dense with stars, the resulting interstellar radiation could lead to a significant build up of dangerous bayron particles on starship’s hulls.
And while Arkaria Prime hosted a large, advanced native population, the ninth planet of the system was officially uninhabited. According to the highly superstitious Arkarians, this small and prosaic world was the home of evil spirits who rested there before continuing onto their final journey into the depth of the Diaspora where they would burn up under the bright and hot light of its various powerful suns.
Tazla Star did not consider herself to be such a spirit but was under no illusions that many people she had met during her current lifetime would not have hesitated to call her one.
She cared little about what other people thought of her but she couldn’t help and wonder if there wasn’t a kernel of truth to the Arkanians archaic believes, considering the expansive and well hidden tunnel network she was traversing underneath the planet’s surface with its intricately designed rooms and corridors, all of which predated the modern Arkanian society by a few millennia and leading her to strongly suspect that some alien race had indeed once dwelt on this world, or at least made this world an outpost.
She entered a particularly large hall, the ceiling reaching up nearly ten meters and the sparse lighting which failed to illuminate the entire breadth, length or height of the room giving it a particularly ominous vibe.
“I take it you did not come empty handed,” said a voice from the shadows.
She looked around but wasn’t able to see the person who had spoken. The voice seemed to bounce off the high walls from every which way. She raised a compact padd she had brought and quickly entered a code.
Not a moment later the prototype she had been sent to retrieve shimmered into existence just a few meters from her.
“A shame about your ship.”
“Yes, quite. I’d grown fond of her. Good crew. .”
“The Orion? Was that necessary?”
She shrugged. “In hindsight, I guess not. But at the time it seemed like the right decision. Had it not been for Owens and the rest of them, this could have all gone so much smoother.”
“You adapted and handled it.”
“It’s what I do.”
“Where’s Mister Jarik?”
“He’s here. He proved pretty useful. His intelligence on the facility was flawless. Sharing it with the others in your task force however was not a good idea. Owens could have ruined everything.”
The voice didn’t respond straight away. “His inclusion was not my idea. He was forced on me by Leone. The man knows how to play his connections, even after his father died.”
Star looked at the prototype beside her. “So, mind clueing me in on why we need a long-range transporter? Are you planning on beaming an army onto the Nyberrite homeworld?
Altee stepped out of the shadows, smiling broadly. “Your imagination, my dear Taz, still suffers from an acute lack of scale. You continue to think in three or four dimensions when you really should be thinking beyond those constrictions.”
She looked puzzled by this. “Wait, you are saying there is a fifth dimension?”
“Of course there is,” said Altee. “And whoever controls access to it, controls everything. While the Guardians and Preservers keep squabbling over scraps, we will be in a position to shape the future of the entire galaxy.”
Star looked back at the unassuming device. “With this thing?”
“It will function as our gateway. This marvel will allow us to open doors we never even knew existed. It will turn the dark ages we have lived through ever since the Borg into nothing more than a distant memory.
They don’t believe this to be a weapon when in fact it just might be the greatest weapon ever invented. With it we will not just restore the Federation to its former glory, we will surpass it in ways nobody has ever even imagined. Today marks the first step in building an empire for the ages, Taz, one in which all the people in this galaxy will bow to us.”
“To us or to you?”
Altee’s only response was a beaming smile.
The story continues in
The Star Eagle Adventures:
Quantum Divergence
Coming in 2017
The Star Eagle Adventures:
Quantum Divergence
Coming in 2017
Thank you to everyone who has read and commented on this story and again, special thanks to Bry Sinclair, DarKush, Galen, Michael Garcia, Sam Redfeather and The LoneRedShirt.
The Road to Quantum Divergence continues in just a few weeks with the third Star Eagle Adventures vignette series, Homecoming.
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This is what I said over at United Trek and it still holds true:
"I liked this story. I found the different factions fighting within Starfleet to be a really fun concept. Infighting amongst heroes can sometimes look like a lazy shortcut to dramatic conflict when it isn't handled properly. But you have a spicy brew, here: An intriguing sci fi plot with the Alpha Weapon / Transporter device, some good cloak and dagger stuff and you've left your central character, Michael Owens, with a personal loss to grapple with which may lead to him being disillusioned with Starfleet all together. He may even go rogue. It's a good launch pad into future stories and I look forward to you fleshing this AU out."
I think this is a great primer for the Quantum Divergence series. In particular, I can't wait to see the backstory on how the Civil War got started and how the Borg invasion was quelled.
Looking forward to more. Color me hooked.
"I liked this story. I found the different factions fighting within Starfleet to be a really fun concept. Infighting amongst heroes can sometimes look like a lazy shortcut to dramatic conflict when it isn't handled properly. But you have a spicy brew, here: An intriguing sci fi plot with the Alpha Weapon / Transporter device, some good cloak and dagger stuff and you've left your central character, Michael Owens, with a personal loss to grapple with which may lead to him being disillusioned with Starfleet all together. He may even go rogue. It's a good launch pad into future stories and I look forward to you fleshing this AU out."
I think this is a great primer for the Quantum Divergence series. In particular, I can't wait to see the backstory on how the Civil War got started and how the Borg invasion was quelled.
Looking forward to more. Color me hooked.
CeJay,
This was a pretty epic story. I liked a lot of the character match ups and interactions. It was also cool revisiting some of the characters from your very first Eagle adventure. Poor Matthew Owens can't catch a break.
One of the things that continues to impress is the various weapons you create. The Alpha Weapons and the dimensional transporter, etc. were pretty cool. And the apparent mastermind seems like they will be a very memorable villain and a worthy addition to the UT rogues' gallery.
I thought this was a very nice way to commemorate the ten year anniversary and I'm curious what you're going to come up with next.
This was a pretty epic story. I liked a lot of the character match ups and interactions. It was also cool revisiting some of the characters from your very first Eagle adventure. Poor Matthew Owens can't catch a break.
One of the things that continues to impress is the various weapons you create. The Alpha Weapons and the dimensional transporter, etc. were pretty cool. And the apparent mastermind seems like they will be a very memorable villain and a worthy addition to the UT rogues' gallery.
I thought this was a very nice way to commemorate the ten year anniversary and I'm curious what you're going to come up with next.
Hey guys, thanks for reading and commenting. Civil War was a fun story to write, no wonder alternate universe stories are so popular, it's fun to take your characters and go into totally new directions. We'll see plenty more of that once I manage to get Quantum Divergence kicked-off and after Homecoming.
All credit to the concept of Alpha Weapons of course goes to Gibraltar. I just borrowed the idea here.
I hope you enjoy what comes next as much.
All credit to the concept of Alpha Weapons of course goes to Gibraltar. I just borrowed the idea here.
I hope you enjoy what comes next as much.
Civil War now available to download as an ebook (PDF, ePub or Kindle) at StarEagleAdventures.com
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