went to Pismo Beach and tried to write but This is all I've got...really wanted to finish this end of it but it will have to be later...
“…thought you should know, Captain,” Janeway said. Sanjay stared into the comscreen at her thoughtfully for a moment.
“Thank you, Admiral. I’m not sure what it means, either, but I’ll do some digging and try to find out. Sanjay out.” He looked across his desk at his Chief Medical Officer. “Jesus, you were on this thing with Jerix at the very beginning. Do you have any ideas?”
Ramirez gathered his thoughts for a few seconds before answering. “The Chief is in a very dark place, Captain. He’s been on a suicide watch since I relieved him of duty.” Sanjay noted that the doctor had spoken from a viewpoint of full responsibility. “If he wrote that, he may have done something to relieve his own suffering. He is very conflicted, feeling both survivor’s guilt and an absolute hatred for the Empire that destroyed his family. I would take the statement very seriously. He may have found a way to settle both of his points of conflict at the same time. If he came up with a means of ending his own life and inflicting punishment on the Empire…” Ramirez paused for a moment. “Remember, he didn’t know I was going to relieve him of duty. He expected to be on Seleya when we attacked the Empire forces in that alternate universe.” Ramirez looked very worried.
Sanjay absently stroked his beard as he considered the implications. Then he reached out and hit the comm button on his desk. “Sanjay to Venetti.”
“Aye, sir, Venetti here.” The temporary Chief Engineer sounded mildly distracted.
“Commander, we are less than eighteen hours from the jump-off point of this mission and I have reason to believe Chief Jerix may have sabotaged the Seleya in some way before he was relieved of duty. Find it. All I can tell you is that whatever he may have done, he would have set it up so that it would have hurt our opponents tomorrow and killed him as well. I’d really rather not find out what it was the hard way. Use everyone you don’t need for the installation of Admiral Janeway’s little toy to search for traces of what he might have done. Remember, whatever he had in mind, it could be anywhere on the ship. If you need additional personnel just ask. Some of our command crew have engineering experience and I have no problem seconding them to you for this.”
There was a distinct pause before Venetti responded. “Um, aye, Captain. I let you know if we find anything.”
“Chief Jerix is a very clever individual. Let me know when you find something.” Sanjay’s tone brooked no disagreement.
“Aye, sir. Venetti out.” Sanjay looked over at Ramirez.
“Do you think that was enough?” he asked.
Ramirez grimaced. “Let’s hope so, Captain. As you said, the Chief is a very clever man.”
***********************
A few moments later Sanjay stepped out of his Ready Room and onto the Bridge. “Lieutenant Nog, I need you to signal your relief and report to Commander Venetti in Engineering. Please place yourself at his disposal until further notice.”
Nog turned away from the helm and looked at his Captain. “Um, yes sir. Could I ask what this is about?”
“You worked with Chief O’Brien on DS9, didn’t you?” Sanjay inquired.
“Yes, sir, I did. For about nine months.”
“Good. Please go to Engineering. Commander Venetti will explain.” Nog left the Bridge without another word, although Sanjay could tell he was practically bursting with questions. As he entered the turbolift Sergeant Mitchell and Commander M’Benga stepped off of it.
“Did he really stick his tongue out like that when he was taking the game-winning shot?” M’Benga asked.
Mitchell was grinning. “Oh, yes, that was kind of like his trademark. There’s still surviving footage in the archives from a few of the Bulls winning seasons. Every one that he put the nail in the coffin on shows the tongue hanging out. I still don’t believe he got that over Shaq’s head, though. It looked like it was going to get slapped into the fiftieth row!” Sanjay stepped in front of them.
“We have a situation,” he said. He quickly filled them in. Mitchell swore softly to himself while M’Benga just looked at Sanjay, surprised.
“Do you really think it’s possible the Chief did something to harm the ship?” She asked.
“I’m afraid I do. Sergeant-“ Mitchell cut him off.
“I’ll get my team on it right away. If it’s a bomb or something like that we’ll find it.” Mitchell didn’t wait for Sanjay’s reply. He was already heading to his board to relay the news to the Security Department.
“Carol, I’d like you to have the Bonestell conduct a level one scan of the Seleya. They have the best sensor suite out of any of the ships in the task force. Tell them to look at everything they can and get back to us as soon as they find anything unusual.”
Carol nodded and went to her seat, already speaking with her counterpart on the Bonestell. Sanjay followed her, taking his seat as well. “Sanjay to Astrometrics.”
“Uh, yes, Captain, this is, uh, Ensign Perling.” As usual, the young man sounded like anything but the picture of self-confidence. That he was one of the premier scientific minds of his generation was a given but his social skills were sometimes…lacking. Sanjay sometimes thought that he had more confidence in him than Perling did in himself.
“Ensign, the ship may have been sabotaged. I want you to get with Commander Venetti and Lieutenant Nog down in Engineering-see if you can help them get to the bottom of this.”
“Uh, yes sir!” came Perling’s startled reply.
Sanjay settled back in his chair and began to stroke his beard. Commander M’Benga sat next to him, absentmindedly drumming her fingers on the arm of her seat. They both waited.
********************
Gav chek Gav was a Tellarite, one of the lowest of the low in the Terran Empire. Nevetheless, he considered himself quite lucky. Although a slave, he worked in the Imperial Palace on Earth and lived better than most of his people. He had comfortable quarters, was fed regularly and, because he performed his duties at night when few were about, was rarely singled out by members of the master races for punishment. He was scrubbing the door frame of the Main Dining Hall and hadn’t seen anyone since he’d come on shift so he was mildly surprised when a figured stepped out of the shadows in the hallway and addressed him. Once he realized who was speaking his surprise turned to sheer terror.
“You are very efficient in your duties, slave.” Emperor Spock spoke without warmth or anger, without any emotional inflection at all. Gav threw himself prostrate on the floor, trembling. He tried to respond but words failed him. Only a low moan escaped his lips. He remained in this position for several long moments without hearing anything else before daring to raise his head. He was just in time to see the Emperor rounding the corner at the end of the hall. Gav was so relieved he fouled himself, but he didn’t care. He was just grateful to be alive. As he went back to his quarters to change his pants he wondered why the Emperor had been roaming the Palace so very late at night. The thought stayed with him for a mere moment before he dismissed it from his mind.
Emperor Spock stared out of a window at the Palace gardens. In the moonlight he could make out the shapes of maintenance robots going about their tasks. Although his razor-sharp mind catalogued their movements, his thoughts were elsewhere. Picard’s fleet had hit the Federation in the universe designated as One some time before, yet no response had occurred. Spock had calculated a ninety-three percent chance that they would have worked up some kind of counter-attack at least four days previously. That none had materialized troubled him greatly. Spock, despite Picard’s boasts, did not believe that Federation One had been rendered impotent. A lack of a counter move suggested variables Spock was not factoring into his equations. He found the idea troubling enough to keep him from sleep. With no one present he permitted himself a rare sigh. The slave he had chanced upon earlier, he thought, probably slept the sleep of the innocent. Spock almost envied him. It had been a long time since Spock had experienced anything resembling innocence. He continued to stare out of the window, re-running his calculations in his head.
**************************
T-2 HOURS
Commander Venetti, Lieutenant Nog and Ensign Perling were gathered around a substation in Engineering. Venetti was speaking.
“Captain, if the Chief did something to the ship we’ve been unable to find it. We’ve been all over the systems and Ensign Perling has analyzed the Bonestell’s sensor sweeps and we are still coming up empty–handed.”
“Alright, Commander, we’ll assume that it’s safe to proceed with the mission but I want you and your team to keep looking. In two hours we go through the Fracture to Federation-B space and rendezvous with their ships. After making whatever repairs are necessary we jump to Federation-C and start hitting the Empire where it hurts. I would rather not have any unnecessary surprises so stay on it. I’m going to want Lieutenant Nog on the Bridge when we jump but you can keep Ensign Perling for the time being. Sanjay out.”
The three officers looked at each other. “Nog, I hate to lose your expertise,” Venetti said. “Your time on DS9 gave you some interesting insights into booby-traps.” Nog grinned at him.
“It sure did. We were there for years, I mean, I grew up on the station, and Chief O’Brien and I were still finding garbage the Cardassians left behind in the systems. It was kind of like the landmines you Hu-mons used in your wars a couple of hundred years ago.”
Ensign Perling began nodding in agreement but Venetti looked puzzled. “Come again?”
“Hu-mons planted buried explosives all over the place to stop enemy troops and long after the wars were over people were still getting killed by them. Until sensor technology improved enough in the mid-2200s to detect the last of them and help to dig them up a few fatalities would be reported every year. At least, that’s what Chief O’Brien told me.”
Understanding washed over Venetti’s face. “Gotcha,” he said. “Well, let’s take another go at it, shall we?” They all turned back to the task at hand.
**************
T-1 HOUR
Twenty-eight ships left Federation-A space through the Fracture. The trip was savage and rough but the latest shield upgrades made the trip far easier than the original passage Seleya had experienced. On the other side, they were met by four Challenger-class ships of the Federation-Bs StarFleet. The lead ship was the Buran. Before messages could be exchanged Sergeant Mitchell spoke up from Tactical.
“Captain, I’m only reading twenty-seven ships, including ourselves, as having emerged from the Fracture.”
“Who’s missing?” Sanjay demanded. The answer came swiftly.
“It’s the Cam Rahn Bay, sir. She never made it out. Sensor logs are showing that she detonated in the Fracture.” Mitchell’s voice sounded heavy. “She must have taken a little too much damage on the way here.
Sanjay seethed. “Damn these self-destruct protocols! We haven’t even engaged the enemy and we’ve already lost a good ship and crew!” No one on the Bridge said anything in reply. Commander M’Benga finally spoke up.
“Sir, the Buran is hailing us.”
“Put it on screen,” Sanjay said. The Bridge of the Buran appeared on the viewscreen. “Hello, Frank,” Sanjay greeted the Buran’s captain.
“Hey, Nick,” Frank responded, his face grim. “I noticed you’re light one bird. They self-destructed, didn’t they?” The look on Sanjay’s face confirmed it without words. Frank shook his head. “Damned shame. I wonder how many more we will lose? Well, it can’t be helped. Nick, which of your ships needs help? I have Engineering teams standing by.”
As the two captains conferred about logistics bits of the Cam Rahn Bay drifted out of the Fracture and took up orbit around Jupiter.
************************
The captain of the Buran had beamed over to Seleya and was meeting with Sanjay in his Ready Room.
“The plan is pretty simple, Frank,” Sanjay said. “The Bonestell is going to act as our sensor platform to guide the rest of the ships to their targets. Since your ships aren’t as, ah, robust in battle as ours I’m assigning you to protect her. The rest of the task force will seek out and destroy any targets of opportunity.” Sanjay looked a little disgusted as he said this.
“Nick, I find this as distasteful as you do but it’s necessary for the overall plan. We have to draw off as many Empire assets as we can to give Picard’s fleet a chance to seal the Fracture. I know you’d rather be out exploring than fighting, the same as me. This is necessary. We do what we have to do and we get out. It’s as simple as that.” Frank held Sanjay’s eyes until he dropped them down to his coffee cup.
“Frank, I may not like our orders but I’ll obey them. A part of me recognizes the need to do this but a part of me hates the thought of StarFleet ships acting like a U-boat pack, you know what I mean?” He took a drink from his mug.
“Nick,” Frank replied, “There isn’t a one of us that likes this-it’s just something that needs doing. Look, I’d better get back to my ship. We’re just about ready to move out.” He stood and held his hand out across Sanjay’s desk. “Good luck, Nick, and stay safe. I lost you once-I don’t want to go through that again.”
Sanjay shook his hand. “You, too, Frank. When this is all over we’ll go drink a few beers and try to find our souls again, ok?”
Frank grinned. “You got it, buddy.”
*****************
Geez, what a thought! You've put me off Cajun cuisine for a month! 
'Course, they might have a tendency to spike their opponents, rather than the ball, in the end zone.
