"Poor, Lost Me."
By Jeremiah Dorsett
*** Days Earlier ***
Jeremiah walked along down the hallways of the Galaxy, swaying his hips in his typically feminine way, out on the prowl yet again- Wait. The prowling never really stopped, did it?
He passed many familiar faces on his way through the bustling corridors, a few that he'd known, a few that he'd wanted, but few who wanted him. Bussiness was bad on starships these days -- No-one wanted custom as they all had their own, *personal* Jeremiahs that were used for more that just what this Jeremiah offered.
He took the abuse of his profession too, yet he still stayed at it. Not the abuse was terriable, because it wasn't anything he couldn't handle - - But sometimes, and only sometimes, it was a little too much for him.
Like earlier when that whore from Interrogation had callled him a slut under her breath as she had passed him earlier, and, although the nature of her insult was all too true, in a wierd little way it hurt him. Lord knows why.
He had almost screamed back at her, but had managed to restrain himself.
But then, later that day, he'd been thrown over the edge. Not that he could've stopped himself, as he didn't exactly jump, more like he was pushed.... and rather harshly at that. His pushers? A bunch of drunk, red-neck (If they even exist thesedays...?) and oh-so hetrosexual Starfleet officers, who just decided they didn't like Jeremiah.
"D'You t'ink it's easy wearing lipstick?" [[Yay Eddie Izzard!]]
That's what Jeremiah had asked then. Bad move, quite obviously. But he ahd been drinking steadily (Yet again) throught the course of the evening, and felt that, scrawny specimin that he was, he could take on a group of four frightening large men.
They'd beaten him to a a bloodly wreck when the security officers reached him.
~~~
Jeremiah sat alone in his room and cried.
Strange that he were alone in his room, for Egg had disappeared, run away, never to seen again no doubt. He just didn't understand anymore... His life, his entire existence was one big mistake. He had no meaning in life anymore. He wasn't even up to date on the interal goings on of the ship -- From what he could make out, There'd been and attack... A mutiny or something... Half the ship was missing... He was in deep confusal.
He sobbed even harder.
What was a poor boy to do?
Eventually he decided that crying never solved anyone's problems, and he needed something new to buck up his ideas... He wiped away his tears and stood uneasily on his high-heeled feet. He sauntered over to the dressing table and gazed at himslef in th mirror... He was a mess -- for a start, his mascara was running down his tear streaked face.
The image in the mirror made him laugh out loud, restoring at least a little hope.
"Computer?" he said through stiffled giggles, as he pressed the control panel, "Play music."
Strians of a 'Cute 'n' Kitsch' song blared through the speakers in the walls, a take on the (In Jeremiah's opinion) simply divine 'Material Girl' of the 20th Century. Mouthing the words to himself, and jigging across the room, he changed into a new outfit (One that showed Jeremiah devotation to PVC) and then washed and reapplied his make-up.
Again he looked into the mirror, but this time a vision of beauty greeted his delicatly eye-linered gaze.
"Per-fecto." he smirked before bouncing out of the room to catch up on the ship's goings on -- His bout of depression had him out of it for a while.
Si Aka:
Ensign Jez Dorsett, USS Galaxy
By: Rob
*** Bridge of The Rotaran ***
"Captain, we are approaching Starbase 357. The Imperial Fleet are about to commence their attack on the station."
Deiran sat up in the command chair, and with a deep voice commanded, "Engage Cloak, drop out of warp. Go to full impulse. And get me the science and comm officers of this ship now!"
The XO of the Rotaran, who used to be the Captain, looked at Deiran strange. What did this Bajoran have in mind he wondered.
The science and comm officers reported to Deiran as he ordered. He acknowledged them with a nod and began to unveil his plan, "I want to scan the Starbase for certain lifesigns. Can you modify the scanners to find a DNA pattern? I have the DNA signature, I just need you to reprogram the sensors for this purpose. Get it done and let me know when you have the sensors ready to test." Deiran turned to the Comm officer and began, "Use this frequency to tap into the Starbases communications and the Galaxy’s comm. I want to know what they’re doing. Make a transcript of all communications, leave nothing out and send it to my console. Dismissed!"
"Helm take us to Heading 92 Mark 128, stay cloaked and wait. Make necessary adjustments so the Starbase doesn’t recognize our impulse engines or our cloak."
Deiran smiled. He’d just keep the ship there behind the Starbase and wait. No need to get his hands dirty in the battle. His concern was staying alive and getting to his money.
*** 2 hours later ***
"CAPTAIN The Imperial Armada just disappeared form our sensors! They just vanished!"
"What the… What do you mean vanished? That can’t be! My sister was on the regent’s ship! Do a sensor sweep of the area! Find them!"
Deiran was concerned for his sister. What happened to her? 350 ships don’t just vanish into thin air!
The science officer reported to him, "Captain Casey, the sensors are modified to your specs. We can find and pinpoint our transporters to anyone’s DNA. I will need the pattern you are searching for sir? Deiran handed the science officer a PADD. "Joerg Sterner. Find him, transport him aboard. Directly to the brig."
The comm officer had initiated a link to the Starbase which could not be traced. Deiran knew everything that was going on. The Galaxy had a hole in her Starboard side, in the lower decks. The sensors of the Starbase lost the Imperial Armada. To everyone they just vanished. And Captain Price escaped with something called a Q.
"Sir, I have lock on this Sterner," the transporter officer said.
"Beam him aboard, directly to the Brig…energize!"
Several seconds passed. "We have him in the Brig sir," the transporter officer reported.
Deiran turned to his XO, "I want a full compliment of guards stationed in the Brig. I don’t want this man to go anywhere. I’m going to talk with him. You have the Conn," Deiran stood up and walked off the Bridge heading for the Brig to talk to his blood enemy, Commander Joerg Sterner. Deiran loved the irony of it all. The roles were reversed. Normally he would have revenge on his mind. But not this time, he had other things planned for Sterner.
By: Price
*****Storage Room 4, Main Engineering*****
With the destruction of the brig, Engineering was now housing the security staff as well as the misfits that had been held in the brig. Alan was sitting alone in a small storage room filled with various engineering materials, but nothing he could use to escape. It was just a matter of time before he was going to feel the hammer on his head for freeing his wife and Samara. He got up to search the cabin once more to find something that would free him from his destiny.
*****3 Hours Later*****
Alan had managed to scrape together a few odds in ends to fashion a small device that would disable the force field that surrounded the Jeffries tube entrance. It would only take the field down for a moment but Security would be on to him in a second. What other options did he have? He stood on a small crate as he began to activate the device.
"What good will this really do?" He pondered as the small device hummed in his hand. "Where could I go? How could I get off this ship? What the hell would I do with the rest of my life?" Alan began to sob as he realized what a pathetic existence he lived. He threw the device across the room, breaking into several pieces as it hit the wall. With his face buried in his hands, he sat on the crate and cried.
There was another way out though, a way that he had considered for the past year. Now was the time to end the nightmare he had been living. On the other side of the room there was a shelf that held insulating wire. He walked over to the shelf and picked out a length that would accomplish what he needed done. The crate was repositioned in the middle of the room, right beneath the single support rafter.
Alan crudely fashioned a noose out of the wire, hopping that his plan wouldn't fail. He tied the top of the rope to the rafter, making sure that it wouldn't come loose. Finally he stood on the crate and put his head through the hole. There he stood for several minutes, considering what he was about to do.
Yes, it was better that he end his life this way. He was positive that he would be executed anyway. It seemed logical that he be the one to take his life.
The crate rocked back and forth as he shifted his wait. Finally it tipped over, causing Alan's neck to snap under the strain put on it from the weight of his body. And as the sound of his vertebrae cracking echoed in his ears, Alan knew for certain that he was finally free.
--
-Greer Erikson, USS GALAXY
By: "Lt. jg Boudreau"
Finally, Mara had something to do; she was busy... a little too busy actually. It had all started with some terrorist attack blowing a nice hole in the ship. Mara was, to say the very least, not impressed. With the all too small engineering staff on the Galaxy, everyone was working around the clock to piece the ship back together.
As if things weren't busy enough around engineering, security decided that they would set up their new base in main engineering. As the host of gold sashes, engineers and security officers alike, swarmed over engineering, Mara protested to Lt. jg Paran. As usual, she was ignored and security remained in main engineering. She watched as Lt. Hewson and Ensign Wadell were brought to their new cells. Both were competent engineers and she could use their help right now, but of course, that was out of the question.
[Bridge to Lt. jg Boudreau. The General wants the Warp Engines back on-line as soon as possible... and you know what that means. Bridge out.]
Mara cursed. "Ensign Prescott! You're in charge of turning that hole into a piece of ship again. I'll get to work on the warp engines. You all know what you have to do, now snap to it!!!"
So Captain Price was back. All these changes in senior officers was making Mara dizzy. It also meant that she had to get the ship back together... and quick or she would be in trouble. Even with the warp engines, the hull breach had to be reinforced or the ship would tear itself apart.
As a crew was putting conduits back together, Mara stood at the main console in engineering and tried to re-establish stability in the matter - anti-matter intermix chamber.
The amount of activity in main engineering was distracting. Mara barely noticed when Lieutenant Morris and a young adolescent boy entered the room.
She turned to them with impatience. "Can I help you?"
Amelie Aka:
By: "B'Elanna Torres"
"Late Sequel to Luck of the Irish"
Alerts went out through main computer.
[Illegal computer access... activating security protocol Gamma-51..]
Instantaneously, all computer access systems shifted to secure mode, and the AI shifted into a secure partition to avoid any possible changes to itself.
********************************
The AI sat paitently, watching and examining all the changes that Deiran was making to both the nanites and the main computer.
After what seemed like ages to a computer used to dealing in less then nano-seconds, Deiran finished his work and headed to the shuttlebay.
[ Estimate of probabilty of stealing shuttle - 85 %...
Accessing Type-IV shuttle system...
Warp drive disabled..
Accessing old II-A shuttle that we have been trying to get rid of.. Inserting complete collection of nasty viruses into computer system...
Virus insertion complete... ]
Back in the main cabin, a screen lit up with a bright yellow smiley face that started laughing. Throughout the main cabin, a loud booming laugh rang from the speakers.
[ETA in micro-seconds for start of nanite infestation : 5... 4.. 3.. 2.. Nanites disabled and set to sleep mode.]
A few seconds later, Deiran moved to the older shuttle and blasted out of the Shadow Wing's docking bay.
[ Analysis of changes made :
- various changes to nanite program
Analysis of corrections to be made :
- shutdown of nanite program
Probability of irritating owner : 100 percent. Probability of humourous entertainment : 100 percent.]
K'Eytyanna Samara, RR Shadow Wing, Freedom Fighter
By: "B'Elanna Torres"
K'Eytyanna fought the urge to move, wishing she had paid more attention to that Vulcan she once knew who tried to teach her how to relax. She could feel her blood coursing through her veins as her Klingon side become more in control.
She fought the urge to jump when Hunter took hold of her chin, lifting so she was forced to rise to her feet. Looking up at him, she stared deeply into his eyes as he stepped close to her.
She breathlessly repeated the Klingon phrase, hoping that Hunter would realise the full ramifications of what she had said, and did not look away.
He shook his head as he replied,
"No. We are each others!"
At that point, he pulled her close and savagely kissed her on the lips. Her heart melted and she pressed herself against him, returning the kiss with intense passion.
Suddenly, her hearing picked up the a chirping sound and she grabbed for her communicator at her belt, mumbling and hoping that her ship's computer wasn't recording her life-signs at that point via the communicator,
"What?"
[ K'Eytyanna, I apologize for interrupting your ... meeting, but this is urgent.]
She stepped away, turning in embarrassment and snapped,
"This had better be worth it, and I told you not to record unless I told you to."
[My apologies. At the moment, I am registering over 300 warp signatures, possibly warships, travelling toward the Starbase. Preliminary analysis states that I should contact you.]
"Okay..." Turning to Hunter, she spoke,
"We have a big problem - lots of warships are heading this way. I have to beam back to Shadow Wing. If you want, you can come as well."
Her communicator chirped again and she snapped into it,
"What now??"
[The ships are now microscopic size. You can continue with what you were doing now. Shadow Wing out.]
K'Eytyanna Samara, RR Shadow Wing, Freedom Fighter
By: Price
Lore slipped again on the sticky sweet honey that was covering the floor when he finally reached the docking port that Captain Price, Lieutenants Morris, Burns and Q had managed to escape through. In frustration, he pounded his fist against the bulk head, denting the door latch under the force, as he watched the ISS Galaxy activate it's thrusters and depart from the Starbase.
The anger was boiling inside Lore. Through gritted teeth, he turned and barked, "To the Akira at once!"
Within minutes, Lore had assumed command of the heavily armored warship and lead a task force of Imperial Starfleet vessels in pursuit of the ISS Galaxy.
*** Bridge, ISS Galaxy ***
Captain Price sat back in the command chair of the ISS Galaxy looking more like a Klingon warrior than a Starfleet officer. Still wearing the disguise he and the others dawned while escaping from Starbase 357 and Admiral Qwon's men, Lee was currently more concerned with their tactical situation than his appearance.
"Lieutenant Burns, report 'mate."
Pat looked at the displays on the tactical arch, tapping several of the controls to double check the readings. "Starbase 357 is launching several ships Captain. They appear to be falling into formation behind the ISS Akira and on an intercept course."
Lee nodded. "What is our present condition 'mate?"
"Warp engines are still off line, but Engineering is working on it sir. Structural integrity and force fields are holding steady on decks 37 through 41 where the terrorist shuttle bomb tore through the hull." Burns explained.
"Are aft torpedo launchers still intact?"
Pat tapped the control panel, "Affirmative Captain. I'm showing full functionality."
"'ave a full spread of quantum torpedoes loaded and ready for launch on my mark." Lee stated flatly, causing a number of eyebrows to be raised around the bridge. Firing on another Imperial Starfleet vessel was taboo, even in this universe.
After a pause, Lieutenant Burns nodded, "Aye General. Loading aft torpedo tubes." Pat double checked his console when a signal began to sound, "We are being hailed Captain. It is coming from the Akira."
Lee sat back in his chair and took a deep breath. His grip tightening on the arms of the command chair slightly before he responded, "On screen 'mate."
The main viewer filled with the some what sticky face of Lieutenant Commander Lore. His duty tunic was still stained with the golden honey that somehow managed to be poured over the android while on Starbase 357.
"Captain Price. You will power down the Galaxy systems and prepare to be boarded. You are under arrest by order of Admiral Qwon." Lore sneered.
Lee smiled slightly, "I'm sorry 'Commander, but I can not do that. I've a mission to accomplish and stopping to chat with you and Admiral Qwon simply is not going to help me carry that out."
Lore glared at the General before replying, "Very well, 'General'." Turning his gaze to the left, Lore looked at Commander Thomas who was stationed in the first officers chair in the command well. "Commander Thomas, you are ordered to relieve Captain Price of his command and take him into custody. You are to return him, and the Galaxy to Starbase 357 at once to face charges of insubordination and mutiny."
Chris glanced over at Captain Price and then back to Lore. "Go to hell Lore. Where the General goes, I follow."
Lee's grin widened. "You see Lore, it's not going to be that easy 'mate. But don't worry, Admiral Qwon under estimated the me and the loyalty of the Galaxy crew too."
"It is a mistake that I will not be making Captain. If you will not make this easy on yourself, then so be it. I will take the Galaxy by force Price. Even you are no match for a hundred ships General."
Lee sat back as if he were relaxing with a hot cup of Bajoran coffee in his ready room. "Ordinarily I would agree with you 'Commander. But then again, I normally am not transporting a member of the Q continuum who is very determined to return home." Lee motioned out with his hand, "The Bajoran Empire sent an armada of over three hundred ships and look what became of them..."
Lore's eyes narrowed and his lips pressed together firmly at the Captain's words. Finally, he stated flatly, "Prepare to be boarded Captain." before closing the channel.
"Are those torpedoes loaded yet 'mate?"
"Aye Captain. Full spread of quantums as ordered sir." Burns replied, still uneasy about firing on Imperial starships.
"Standby with them 'mate." Captain Price replied before activating the communications unit on the arm of the command chair. "Engineering, what is going on down there 'mates? I need warp power and I need it now." Captain Price stated and awaited anxiously for a reply.
By: john.kirk@cadresource.com (John Kirk)
" We sit. We wait. We watch for an opportunity to escape and then we take it. " Sunder answered plainly. He was more worried about Heretia. She'd been removed from the other two and taken to ... God knows where.
After the party had failed to reach their location, the Shadowfire was out of range to transport them out of the escape pod. As such they now found themselves trapped on board the ISS Galaxy, awaiting interrogation and whatever else the minions of the Federation had in store for them.
Sunder couldn't imagine why they had been brought on board the Galaxy though. After all, they had more on their hands to worry about with a huge bite out of their starboard lower deck. He allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction. At least he'd gotten noticed.
A sudden lurch threw the two prisoners off their metal bunks and onto the cold floor.
" What the hell... ? " Sunder muttered.
" It feels like the Galaxy's gotten underway. " Alled said with a look of alarm on his face.
" Can't be. " Sunder answered. " They wouldn't think of leaving space dock in such a state. "
" Maybe they didn't think. " Alled observed. " It seems you humans always tend to leap into things without thinking first. "
" Maybe, but now we have a bigger problem. " Sunder stood up from the floor and walked over to the cell forcefield. He tried to peer down the hallway.
" What's that? "
" Whatever's going on outside. It has to be pretty big to make Lee move this ship in her condition. " He turned around. " So if we manage to escape, we may just be jumping from one bad situation into a worse one. "
" The frying pan into the fire. " Alled whispered sadly.
" What's that? " Sunder asked.
Alled sighed. " Oh nothing. Just a saying that seems to describe my life recently. "
By: "Charles B. Smith"
"Taa Daa!!"
Ronnie lead Q to the turbolift and said, "Engineering". Q was blustering, but Ronnie was only pay a little attention.
"How dare he order me around?! How dare he order me to use my powers? Just wait until I get back to my reality, then he'll see . . . . "
Ronnie turned to him and said, "Listen. I understand you are upset. I understand that you are frustrated by the situation, but shut up!! If you want to be useful, then listen to what I say and help us get you home."
Q started to chew on his bottom lip and shut up. Ronnie tried to adjust the Orion slave girl costume, but there just wasn't enough there to adjust. Q saw what she was trying to do, and he waved his hand and she was back in her uniform and without the body makeup. Surprised, she looked down and then over at him, "Thank you. That's the first unselfish thing I've seen you do."
Q actually blushed.
The doors opened and the entered into Engineering. Chaos was the only word to describe it.
Lt. jg Mara Boudreau was working at a console, she turned to them with impatience. "Can I help you?" she said tersely.
Ronnie said, "Lieutenant, we may have a way to get going sooner."
The Engineer turned and said, "Fine! Just don't mess up any of my systems and stay the hell out of my way!" With that, she turned and went back over to the WARP core monitoring station.
Ronnie took Q over to the main console and pulled up a schematic of the ship. Then, she overlaid the image with the damaged parts of the ship.
"Q, I know that your abilities aren't as reliable as normal now, but, "she pointed to the hull breech and the WARP core initiators, "we need to get these areas fixed before we can go to WARP."
Right then, the ship shook from a torpedo blast. Q, unprepared for the shock, fell to the ground.
Ronnie helped him up. "The quicker you can do those repairs, the sooner we'll be able to leave."
Q concentrated and waved his hand and the red areas didn't decrease. He took a deep breath, despite the second shock wave, and waved. The reds of the hull breeches disappeared, along with the internal damage markings.
Looking up at Ronnie with a half smirk, he said, "Taa Daa!!"
Off to her left, Ronnie heard Mara yell, "Initiating cold start of the WARP engines. Now!"
The initial dampeners took half a moment to kick in, but the ship took off. Everyone in Engineering yelled, "Hooray!!"
Ronnie ran over and gave Q a big hug. "We may get you home yet!" she told him.
Lt. Jg. Boudreau looked over and said, "We're not out of the woods yet. We still have the ISS Akira on our tail."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
By: TZQK37B@prodigy.com (MR PAT J BURNS)
"Just Short of a Miracle"
Arriving at the Bridge, Pat took over the Tactical Station since he out ranked the officer currently assigned there. He began to tap several buttons to assess the situation.
Suddenly a light began to blink. Recognizing what it was, he called to the Captain, "Communication coming in Captain. It's from Regent Worf. He's demanding our immediate surrender or his attack fleet will use us for target practice before going on to annihilate the Starbase."
Pat thought to himself, "Oh boy! We're in some serious shit."
"Raise shields." the Captain ordered.
Pat quickly checked the status of the shields and was depressed to see the condition they were in. "Shields are off line Captain."
"Forget it!", Pat thought to himself again, "We're royally screwed."
"Damn! Doesn't anything on this ship work mister?" Lee said in a frustrated tone.
"They are working on it Captain." Pat tried to sound hopeful, however he knew the end was near unless a miracle was performed. He looked again at the display, "The ships will be in weapons range in twenty seconds sir."
"We wont be making it to the Argonii system without shields and no warp engines..." Lee said aloud, "Not with that many ships ahead of us. Take evasive actions Lieutenant Bancroft."
Pat knew that the Captain was frustrated and had lost hope, however he sure did do a good job of covering it up.
"You can't do that Price!" Q suddenly protested. "I must get back to the Q continuum, and I must get there at once!"
"I am open for suggestions Q?" Captain Price asked, looking at the young boy.
"Maintain your course Price. The ships before you will not pose a problem. Leave them to me..." Q said with an evil smile.
Pat thought Q was crazy, but then again he did have miracle working powers.
"Are you sure 'mate? Your powers haven't exactly been very reliable lately..." Price queried.
"Some things are easier to do than others Price. Observe..."
Pat crossed his fingers hoping that Q would do something of help to the Galaxy.
Q waved his hand and in an instant the massive fleet of 300 plus war ships vanished before their very eyes.
Pat looked down at the display. Tapping a few buttons to make sure that he was correct he exclaimed in amazement, "Sir! The Empire's fleet, they seem to of vanished!"
"Not vanished, I assure you. They are still there. I just needed to remind them how small they really are." Q announced.
"What have you done Q?! You haven't destroyed all of those ships. Murdered all of those people, have you!" the Captain exclaimed.
"Mon Captain, only humans are so savage as to do something like that. They are all safe. And in time, I'm sure they will return to their normal state."
Captain Price raised an eye brow, "Normal state? What did you do Q? "
The boy smiled, "Like I said, I reminded them just how small they really are. Now, don't we have some modifications to make to the structural integrity generators before we reach the Argonii Star?"
Lee nodded. "Lieutenant Morris, accompany Q to Engineering to make the required modifications."
"Aye sir. This way Q." Ronni motioned as the two of them exited the bridge.
The Captain sat in his chair and appeared to be thinking about something. After about a minute he stood up and spoke, "Lieutenant Burns, report 'mate."
Pat began to examine the displays on the tactical arch. Tapping several of the controls to double check the readings. "Starbase 357 is launching several ships Captain. They appear to be falling into formation behind the ISS Akira and on an intercept course."
"Oh great," Pat thought, "Now were getting chased by Starfleet."
Lee nodded. "What is our present condition 'mate?"
He thought about saying, "Well, we're totally screwed over Captain.", however he figured that would not be what the Captain wanted so he just gave him the lowdown on the situation, "Warp engines are still off line, but engineering is working on it sir. Structural integrity and force fields are holding steady on decks 37 through 41 where the terrorist shuttle bomb tore through the hull."
"Are aft torpedo launchers still intact?" The Captain asked.
Pat tapped the control panel, "Affirmative Captain. I'm showing full functionality."
"ave a full spread of quantum torpedoes loaded and ready for launch on my mark." Lee stated flatly, causing a number of eyebrows to be raised around the bridge. Firing on another Imperial Starfleet vessel was taboo, even in this universe.
Pat thought, for a split second, that the Captain had lost his mine, but that idea ended as Pat had always been loyal to Captain Price.
After a pause, Pat nodded, "Aye General. Loading aft torpedo tubes." Pat double checked his console when a signal began to sound, "We are being hailed Captain. It is coming from the Akira."
"Well here we go." Pat mumbled under his breath.
It took the Captain a few moments before he responded, "On screen 'mate."
The main viewer filled with the some what sticky face of Lieutenant Commander Lore. His duty tunic was still stained with the golden honey that somehow managed to be poured over the android while on Starbase 357.
"Captain Price. You will power down the Galaxy systems and prepare to be boarded. You are under arrest by order of Admiral Qwon." Lore sneered.
Lee smiled slightly, "I'm sorry 'Commander, but I can not do that. I've a mission to accomplish and stopping to chat with you and Admiral Qwon simply is not going to help me carry that out." Pat grimaced slightly upon hearing the Captain say this.
Lore glared at the General before replying, "Very well, 'General'." Turning his gaze to the left, Lore looked at Commander Thomas who was stationed in the first officers chair in the command well. "Commander Thomas, you are ordered to relieve Captain Price of his command and take him into custody. You are to return him, and the Galaxy to Starbase 357 at once to face charges of insubordination and mutiny."
Pat knew that Chris wouldn't follow Lore's order. Chris glanced over at Captain Price and then back to Lore. "Go to hell Lore. Where the General goes, I follow." Pat gave out a small laugh.
Lee's grin widened. "You see Lore, it's not going to be that easy 'mate. But don't worry, Admiral Qwon under estimated me and the loyalty of the Galaxy crew too."
"It is a mistake that I will not be making Captain. If you will not make this easy on yourself, then so be it. I will take the Galaxy by force Price. Even you are no match for a hundred ships General."
Lee sat back as if he were relaxing with a hot cup of Bajoran coffee in his ready room. "Ordinarily I would agree with you Commander. But then again, I normally am not transporting a member of the Q continuum who is very determined to return home." Lee motioned out with his hand, "The Bajoran Empire sent an armada of over three hundred ships and look what became of them..."
Lore's eyes narrowed and his lips pressed together firmly at the Captain's words. Finally, he stated flatly, "Prepare to be boarded Captain." before closing the channel.
Pat now gave out a short laughter as he was finding this very humorous.
"Are those torpedoes loaded yet 'mate?"
Regaining his composure, "Aye Captain. Full spread of quantums as ordered sir." Pat replied.
"Standby with them 'mate." Captain Price replied before activating the communications unit on the arm of the command chair. "Engineering, what is going on down there 'mates? I need warp power and I need it now." Captain Price stated and awaited anxiously for a reply.
What was heard was just what everyone wanted to here, "Captain," Lt. Morris said, "Thanks to Q we now have Warp capabilities."
A cheer was heard that echoed throughout the ship for Q, who had once again performed a miracle.
Lt. Pat Burns/Tactical Dept. Interrogation Officer
By: Kahn Nilani
Galaxy "Big Again YAY!!!"
["Regent we are now entering sector 45-B"]
["Drop out of Warp. And secure cloak"]
["Aye my Lord."]
The crew worked hard trying to figure out what had happened to all the systems.
["Regent The ships are growing Larger. We are at full size"]
["Scan the sector where the Galaxy is?"]
["Regent the Galaxy is being presued by a number of IFP ships"]
["Lock onto the Galaxy. Max Warp on my mark"]
At this time I stepped in.
"Regent I suggest we lock onto the persuing fleet and send the other ships in for the starbase. We can use the power of Q for our own"
["I see the advantage in that. Helm change course Target the Second ship Maximum Warp. Communications Hail the Galaxy and send her the message that we are comming to help her. Tatical Get Arm Weapons I want those new weapons we have to destroy that second ship as soon as we fire at her. Signal the fleet to commence attack on the Starbase."]
From all over the bridge there was a cry of "Yes My Lord"
**** 15 min later ****
["My Lord we are in behind the Second Ship. The Lead ship has powered up it's weapons and is ready to fire. The Galaxy has no Warp, she will be unable to withstand the fire power."]
["Aye. Decloak Target Second Ship!!! T
ell the G'Kar to fall in behind us!! Tatical Open Fire on the second ship. Communications send the message NOW!"]
**** The Massive Supercruser Decloaked and opened fire on the second Ship. The New weapons systems went straight through the ships shields destroying the ship ****
The communications officer sent a message to the Galaxy.
[[ I.S.S. Galaxy this is the Regent's personal ship. The Intendent has taken a liking to you and because of this the Regent has decided that he will help you escape. But Captain let me assure you this will not happen again. ]]
The Regent Sat down after the massive explosion
["Tatical Lock onto the third ship. What is the present setting of the disruptor's"]
["My lord target is locked. And it is set on 30%."]
["Very Well Increase power to 100% and prepare to open fire"]
**** The fleet closed within firing range of the station ****
By: Scene23@aol.com
Lieutenant Sanchez activated the threat board, and projected a holographic representation of the Galaxy into the air above the main console. Matthew just shook his head at the miraculous restoration of the Security Department, vowing to never anger a "Q," whatever that was. Regardless of how it was accomplished, it was indescribably pleasing to have use of the advanced ship’s defense systems available to them here.
With time so short, and events so dramatic, he had had no time to order the return of prisoners to the brig from the storerooms in Engineering. For all he knew or cared, the prisoners were dead. With an Bajorin Armada and a hundred Imperial Fleet ships all hunting them, the comfort of prisoners ranked low on his priority list.
The lieutenant keyed in some commands, and said, "Chief, we have our forces spread thinly in sensitive areas of the ship." Symbols appeared on the holographic image, showing the positions of security details preparing for boarding parties. "Cavanaugh restored the ship’s intruder detection grid, which is at full alert status. We have phaser/disruptor discharge sensors fully operational, and the ship is at general quarters. If a targ or a cat get loose on the ship, we’ll know about it! Torrent fields are fully operational, and now that we have warp capability, there’s plenty of power to charge up as many internal forcefields as we like." She reinforced the commander’s high opinion of her with her vehement and enthusiastic performance of her duties.
He smiled a wicked grin, "They said to be prepared to be boarded, and we are!" The acting chief interrogation officer rubbed at his facial scar, as he often did while thinking. "Have the security overrides been disabled completely? I don’t want some hotshot from ‘Fleet coming aboard with some secret password and disabling our systems again." He knew it was impossible to protect your ship from any and all possibilities, but he was sure that if you could anticipate a problem, you could avoid it.
"Well, sir, you know we cannot disable codes we don’t know about. But the codes that were used to assault the ship while we were docked have been disabled. Assuming those were codes belonging to the Admiral, we may be protected against his people temporarily." She tapped some more controls, working rapidly, her console changing its layout with every series of commands. She said, "In secured areas, I am limiting voice systems access to those patrols assigned there. Hopefully that will prevent manipulation of the system by boarders." Several areas of the three-dimensional hologram changed tint, becoming orange.
He bent over next to her, entering in a query to the ship’s computer. He said, aloud, "I wonder how many of us made it aboard before we left the Starbase." Soon enough he had his answer, as well as more symbology and coloration changes on the giant image. He looked at the information as the computer’s bold male voice spouted out the statistics.
"The number of passengers and crew on the ISS Galaxy at this time is Three hundred, twenty-seven. That number includes; two hundred and thirty-one able crewmembers, thirty-five support personnel, six…"
He interrupted, "That’s enough information, thank you computer." For a split second he wondered if, just for once, he should allow the computer to finish its litany. "We are seriously understaffed, Sanchez. I hope this ‘Q’ character continues to pitch in until we get wherever the captain is taking us."
He couldn’t get his mind off the unlikely string of events that led them all here. First the captain acting strangely, the attack on the captain's life, the disappearances from the brig, Casey's disappearance, quickly followed by the captain's and the first officer's, the mysterious assault on the ship's internal security systems, the return of the captain with a strange and powerful alien. Just thinking about it made his head spin. At least he had forgotten about his transporter incident for a moment.
Sanchez continued to run situational analyses of possible threat situations that faced them. Each time, the resulting statistics displayed in the air near the saucer section of the 3-D image. "Chief, every time I enter these parameters, we come out the losers. Look at this one, I gave us level two retention of critical systems, limited their beam-in sites, and assumed only two boarding vessels, and we still come out losing the entire security department! There’s no way this skeleton crew can defend this huge ship! We need a better plan!"
"Or a smaller ship," he added. Things were not looking good.
By: Price
The Captain had only been back for a few moments and the ship was at red alert and preparing to leave at warp speed. Now they were moving as fast as possible away from Starbase 357. Lieutenant Morris was still 'at large' and the Captain had been too busy to listen to the chief scientist's accusations against the second chief scientist. If the ISS Galaxy managed to escape he would have the time to tighten the noose around her neck but the Captain had made it clear that now was not the right time. The science console seemd to agree, warships identification signatures all over the place, some attempting to stop the Galaxy-class vessel.
It hadn't been a regulation departure from the starbase, and the directive for Captain Price to be relieved of his command was also quite unexpected, but this was the starfleet of the Imperial Federation and the unexpected was not totally unusual. Greer simply stood at his station awaiting for the unusual nature of their departure to come to light. If ever it were to be so.
The science station beeped with the signatures of various vessels and planets as the ISS Galaxy warped passed them. No intense scans were possible since the ship was moving to fast to provide indepth and reliable data. The reference on the Bridge to the Argonii star system made the scientist a little curious about their destination. If his memory served him correctly that system was full of hazards, if not a spectacular sight to behold.
"Computer, access all relevant information on the Argonii star system."
Looking at the duty station screen with the relevant LCARS file pertaining to the Argonii star system. According to Imperial Starfleet databases the Argonii star system contains large asteroids, composed primarily of iron and magnesium, orbiting a Class-G star.
"Captain." Greer said looking over to the Captain's chair, "Sir I'm just reviewing an impressive list of vessels reported missing in that system. Are you sure you want to take the Galaxy there sir?"
"I'm aware of what I'm doing Lieutenant. We will proceed to the Argonii system." the commanding officer said, not impressed by the constant lack of timing of the Lieutenant's questions. First trying to have Ronnie arrested and now hassling him about a place where he had already lost his own USS Galaxy.
"Aye sir." Greer said, turning around to his duty station again. "So he knows what he's doing." he mumbled to himself, hoping this was indeed true.
"Computer, analyse all available data on the size, composition, and arrangement of asteroids in the Argonii system. Use this model to estimate the risk of taking a Galaxy-class warship into the Argonii star system?"
The computer display began to model the parameters the Lieutenant entered into it. Several moments later, the computer showed the probabilities of sustaining minor, moderate, and major damage to a warship the size of the ISS Galaxy.
"Sir?" Greer said turning back to the Captain, "You do realise the potential risk to the ship. We could ... "
"Are you questioning my ability to command this vessel Erikson?" Lee said, trying to silence the scientist in the most quick and effective way possible. Afterall, the chief scientist had already been in enough trouble.
Some of the Bridge crew, including Commander Thomas, gave him a brief glance. "Ah, no sir I'm not. I just thought you should be made aware of the information I pulled out of the computer and my risk assessment to the ship sir." he replied. Getting the point, the science officer turned back to his duty station and tried to remain quiet as not to provoke the wrath of 'The General'.
By: e9226192@student.tuwien.ac.at (Joerg Sterner)
Joerg was carefully following a very enraged Lieutenant Commander Lore. He was in fact so enraged, that he seemed to have forgotten that he was after the former First Officer of the ISS Galaxy to kill him. Joerg kept a quite safe distance to Lore, so that he could be sure he wouldn't notice him.
Upon arriving at the deck with the shuttle bay in question, Lore stormed into that shuttle bay while Joerg hid some safe distance from the shuttle bay doors. He also took out his tricorder to get some more informative readings from within the shuttle bay. That bay however was surrounded by a very strong force field, which interfered with the tricorder readings, so that Joerg didn't get any clear details about the interior at all.
Some time later, Lore left the shuttle bay again and was quickly gone around a corner. Joerg wanted to continue to follow Lore and left his hiding place. He was just about to sneak around the corner Lore took several moments ago, when suddenly two security guards came from behind him. Joerg started to run around the corner, straight into the arms of his enemy, Lieutenant Commander Lore, who quickly grabbed him.
"So, we finally meet Commander." Lore said sarcastically.
"I was just thinking the same thing." Joerg replied in an angry voice.
"You'll soon have much time to talk about this and other interesting things with me, but right now I have much more important things to do." Lore announced and handed over his prisoner to the waiting security guards.
"Bring him to my 'office'. I'll shortly come back and take care of him personally." he added and was on his way to one of the turbo lifts.
"I'm looking forward to that 'conversation' you bloody bastard!" Joerg shouted, while he struggled with the two guards, whose grip was nearly as strong as Lore's.
'At least the running away is over.' Joerg thought, while still struggling with the guards. The guards and their prisoner were just on their way to Lore's interrogation chamber, when suddenly and without any warning Joerg started to dematerialize.
Joerg was partly pleased and partly surprised that he was beamed away from the two guards. The only questions that arose, while he was in the transporter buffer, was where he was about to be transported and by whom. The moment he rematerialized he knew at least the answer to the first part of the question. He was in one of the holding cells in the brig on a Klingon ship.
While he was going around in the small chamber, checking the possibilities of escape, he thought to himself 'Now the hunt is really over.' and was waiting for someone who he could thank for his rescue from the starbase, even if it was someone from the Empire.
By: Ron Wyatt
Robert St. John grabbed his phaser and stepped into the corridor, heading for the bridge. He knew they were understaffed, they needed every officer to do their best. St. John knew ops, he knew where he needed to be. A new sense of pride filled him, they were doing what was right, for once. Not what Command wanted. The General was going to save them. Robert stepped into the turbolift and exited onto the bridge. He glanced and found ops...
Ensign Robert St. John
By: Stuart Clapperton
There was two things Jack needed to do on the Galaxy, information that Jack needed to find out, however a large obstacle stood in his way, the docking port was being manned by three large security officers, who were all armed to the teeth with an array of weapons. Each person who entered or left the Galaxy, was thoroughly searched, which would cause a problem for Jack.
One of the officers had a device of some sort that each of the people passing through had to place their left hand on. It was probably used to determine if that person matched anyone they were looking for, which would either be Sterner, or one of his cohorts, or in case Sterner had control of the ship, then it would be Price, Thomas, and their mates. Either way Jack would stand no chance of getting through.
"I could always overpower them." Jack mumbled to himself from the corner where he currently stood. He gave up that idea pretty quickly, someone would realise something was amiss, and then he would be caught. *A diversion would do it, but what kind of diversion* Jack was thinking about what sort of diversion when a large explosion rocked the ship, and more importantly the area that Jack was currently watching was shaken wildly.
Many of the crew members trying to get onto the Galaxy started to run away, whilst others ran to the nearest viewport to see what had happened, very few people stood near the entrance to the Galaxy, least of all the three Security officers who had all gone, after sealing the port doors, to view the after effects of the explosion. Jack made his move to the Galaxy, marvelling at the timing of that diversion, entered his special access code, and as the doors opened, entered the Galaxy for the first time in many hours.
**** Metres Away, Near The View Port ****
A young man stood, shoulders leaning against the view port, watching the docking port. He had a specific objective, one which he had been waiting here for the last four hours to do. It had been boring, and he ached all over, but he still had a job to do, and so he had kept watch. Occasionally his eyes had wavered and one time he had caught a glance out the view port and had seen a vessel that seemed to be too close to the Galaxy. When he had looked a minute later, the small ship had gone out of view behind the Galaxy's Hull.
An almighty explosion rocked the Galaxy moments later, the young man turned to look out, and saw a sight that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Debris floating everywhere, a large whole in the Galaxy, and a lifeless corpse that had drifted near the view port. He turned away in disgust, and almost vomited. As the crowds built up around the view port, the young officer noticed a man running entering the Galaxy. It was the man he had been waiting for.
The man tapped his portable communications device, remembering that his boss wanted no one in the communications centre to know about his message. Once he got a reply, he spoke into it. "Sir, There was a big explosion near the Galaxy, and Mr Lawson just entered her." He listened
to the reply from the other end. "Yes sir." The voice on the other end spoke again. "I understand. Peterson out." Peterson moved away from the view port to continue his watch on the docking hatch where Lawson had just entered.
**** Somewhere On The Station ****
A small communications device vibrated against the uniform of a Starfleet officer. He pulled it out of his belt and activated it. "What's up?" He stated. "Sir, There was a big explosion near the Galaxy, and Mr Lawson just entered her." The pale skinned man rubbed his chin gently, thinking to himself. "Keep watch on the entry port, I'll be there in a few minutes. Report to me as soon as he leaves the ship." "Yes sir." Peterson replied to Lieutenant Commander Lore. "And also watch out for Price and Sterner" The communications device shut off and Lore placed it back in his belt. Apart from the situations with both Sterner and the now missing Price, Lore still had a score to settle with Lawson, ever since the Omega Colony Delta One incident where Lawson had caused a cave-in on top of Lore. The pale officer wanted revenge more than anything, and now that Lawson was within his grasp he wanted to pay him back.
**** Minutes Later On The Galaxy ****
"Bridge" Lawson commanded as he entered the turbolift.
"Unable to comply, bridge access is limited to authorised personnel by voice command override only" The computer responded.
Jack was mystified at the reply he got from the computer. "Who authorised the change?"
"Captain Thomas initiated the change."
"Deck Eight" Jack said to the computer. With one of Jack's questions answered, he needed to answer the other. The stations databanks had revealed nothing on the captains whereabouts, so the only other place that might hold any answers was the captains own quarters. The turbolift slowed down and then the doors opened. Jack walked along the deserted corridor, and neared the captains quarters. he pulled out the tricorder that he had stolen unnoticed from Engineering, most of the engineers currently trying to repair the damage to the ship. A scan of the door revealed that the door had been sealed by Thomas, and his security clearance or that of the Captain were the only two that could be used to open it.
**** Down At The Docking Port ****
To anyone watching, it would seem normal, a merchant, his manservant, and his Orion slave girl walking towards a ship docking port. Although an alarm had just sounded moments ago, and the Security officers had gone to see what it was about, Peterson was not bemused. He just sat there near the shadows watching, waiting, waiting for Commander Sterner, Captain Price, or Lt. Commander Lawson, who was currently on the Galaxy. He was also waiting for Lore, who wanted all three captured.
"Stop those traitors!" Peterson stood up. He realised who it was that had spoken, yet with no phaser or other weapon with which to stop the traitors, he couldn't do anything about them. He moved to the corner to see his pale skinned boss standing and shouting at the gold sashes that were nearby.
What happened next was a blur, someone had knocked down Lore, and was shouting "Hurry General! Run!", Price and his group had escaped, and Lore was mad. Peterson walked over to the android casually, only expecting to be berated for not stopping them, but that was not what happened.
"Mr Peterson, Why didn't you stop them?" Lore asked angrily.
The young science officer looked stunned. "If you had issued me with a phaser, I might have been able to slow them down or maybe even stop them."
Lore was really mad at this point. "You're blaming ME!!! You will pay for your stupidity." Lore wrapped his mechanical hand around the throat of Ensign Peterson and started to squeeze. "No... Please, stop." Peterson tried to plead to the android. "Goodbye Mr Peterson" Lore squeezed tightly, and a snapping sound could be heard. The lifeless body of Ensign Peterson fell to the ground, dead.
Lore bent down and wiped the traces of blood from his hand onto the dead officers uniform. A noise was heard from above and he raised an eyebrow, shortly before a mass on honey came down over him.
**** Meanwhile On Deck 8 ****
"Computer, where is Captain Thomas?"
"Captain Thomas is on the Bridge."
Jack tapped his communicator, "Albrecht to Thomas" He needed access to the Captains quarters, and Thomas wouldn't listen to him, his assistant Interrogation officer might be able to get him to release the lock.
"What is it?" Thomas stated.
"I need access to the captains quarters. I think there may be something in there that may help solve the mystery of his disappearance." Jack was almost praying that this would work.
"I would love to help you, but alas I can't... Mr Lawson. You do realise that we've been trying to find you for some time now. Would you mind telling me where you are?" Chris' voice could be heard over the communicator.
Somehow Thomas knew that it was Jack, and not Matthew Albrecht that was contacting him. "I don't think so."
"Come now Jack, we just want to talk to you." Captain Thomas responded, an air of confidence about him.
Jack had started to edge his way towards the turbolift, just in case he had to make a break for it. For all Jack knew, Thomas may be wanting to take over the ship himself, much like Sterner had obviously wanted to do. "Yeah right, like I'm going to believe that!!! I've seen the holo-vids, I know what sort of things really happen when someone says that."
"I won't ask you again Mr Lawson..." Thomas seemed to be getting mad. It showed in his voice. Another voice interrupted Chris, "He's on deck 8 sir." Captain Thomas came back on. "You were warned Jack!" He then cut the channel.
He had to work fast, Thomas' goons would be there shortly. Jack ripped the cover off the turbolift access panel. Pulling out the tricorder that he had stolen, Jack hooked it up to the exposed electronics. After a few modifications he forced the turbolift doors open. The vast shaft of the turbolift could be seen above and below his current position, although he could see a lift coming up at the moment. It slowed down at deck 9, and while it was stopped Jack carefully got on to the top of it. He could hear voices talking from inside the lift.
An unknown male voice spoke. "I always thought these things only stopped when someone wanted to get on or off. "
"There must be something wrong with the system. We'll have to get someone to look at it." A female voice stated. The way her voice sounded led Jack to believe she was a Delphinian or at least part Delphinian.
"Don't worry about it 'mate, it's just a glitch." A familiar voice said. It was the captain. Jack almost pulled open the hatchway to jump down into the lift but stopped when he heard the captain speak again. "It won't be long now Q, and you and I will be back in our own universe. And you'll have your powers back. Computer Deck 1"
*Q, 'Our Universe', Powers* Jack thought to himself. It seemed that the General was not from this universe, and that this 'Q' wasn't either. Jack had heard about this other universe. He knew about the law and order that the other universe had. He and Data, Lore's brother had talked about it once, while he had been serving on the Enterprise. If what Price said were true that would mean that this Captain Price probably wouldn't know about the assignment that Command had given Jack.
The lift was now heading for Deck 1 and Jack overheard a fourth person speak. "Sir, what are you talking about?"
"I'll tell you later 'mate" Price stated, as the lift neared it's destination. Jack had to crouch down to avoid hitting the top of the turbolift shaft, thankful that the engineers that had built the ship had left enough room for a person to fit. The lift stopped and the four people stepped out and were immediately replaced by a bunch of security personnel, who were bound for deck 8, to catch an intruder. The lift which had started to descend could be seen to stop from the vantage point that Jack had from the safety of a Jefferies tube that connected with the turbolift shaft.
*This information will come in handy* Jack thought to himself, before starting off towards a safe area, somewhere, where no one was likely to find him.
Lt. Cmdr. Jack Lawson
** This takes place prior to Captain Price's Return **
Captain Thomas set in the ready room thinking about what had transpired on the ship only a few weeks. Besides the issues surrounding Captain Price. The ship had been plagued by a series of crew members attacking each other. Now the ship had a series of murders that had happened recently. This was troubling, but he had expected something's to happen with the changes that had occurred. There were however some things that he had not expected to happen.
The ship now had a hole in it as someone had planted a bomb or used some other means to blow a hole in the ship. He was shocked by this change in events and annoyed at the same time. With such actions plus where they were located it made for an unpleasant combination. However he had to make the best of the current situation. Which was hwy he had ordered all available personal to initiate repairs to the ship at once, when he had learned what the explosion that had rocked the ship was. Unfortunately even with all the available man power that could be assigned it was still going to take some time to complete there repairs.
This was a serve problem the damage made moving the ship tenuous a best. But the sooner they could get underway the better off they'd all be. Time demand they be prepared for departure as soon as possible.
** Ready Room (Price's Arrival) **
The repairs are proceeding slowly. Estimates for full repairs are 3 weeks due to the damage and then to test systems to bring them back to operational status.
Captain Price entered his ready room surprising Captain Thomas who was relaxing in the captain's chair. Chris was astonished to see Captain Price. However in some sense he was relieved as it meant the captain could deal with some of the newest problems.
"Captain Price." Chris responded to the surprise entrance of the captain. He had feared the worst, but here was the captain alive. Once the chock wore off he was able to respond to the return of Captain Price.
** Present: Bridge **
Captain Price had ordered the ship to immediately depart form the starbase. Admiral something wouldn't wait long to be a problem the hole in the ship had made it impossible to go to warp drive due to the inability to form a stable warp field. Full Impulse was the best speed that they could achieve.
How Ironic Chris thought to himself the one time they really needed warp drive they didn't have it available. This left them in a variable spot. Thomas was still trying to figure out why this destination, but any place was better than where they were, considering the alternatives. Then the response fleet was being dispatched after them. Their objective was all to clear get the Galaxy back, anyway possible.
Chris was no engineer nor did he claim to have any knowledge to help behind what he had learned.
"Captain with your permission I'd like to go to main engineering and see where we're at and how far away we are from having warp speed." Chris said.
"Of course commander." Captain Price responded.
Chris left the bridge for main engineering. Chris wasn't sure what help he could contribute to the engineering staff, but he had to try or else die. However he knew that if he didn't things might get worse.
** Main Engineering **
Upon entering main engineering Chris found the place a buzz with activities. The staff was trying to intinte repairs. Others were toying with ideas about how to restore warp drive. Chris found the chief engineer surrounded by several other members of his staff. This was the person Thomas wanted to talk with.
"Chief" Thomas said as he approached him.
"Captain Price wants warp drive back online as soon as possible. Do what ever is needed to get us warp speed just leave life support, sensors and other critical systems with power online. If you have to draw power form other areas to reinforce the structure intagerity or the forcefileds do it, just get us warp drive." Chris ordered now it was in the chiefs hands to accomplish the task at hand. With that Chris chose to return to the bridge.
** Back to the Bridge **
After spending a short time in engineering Chris decided to return to the bridge. He was Commander Thomas against first officer of the ship. However sooner or later he was going to have to pay up to Lt. Commander Ti soon. He would have to, but for now he had a duty to attend to and that was his first obligation.
Chris Patton
By: "B'Elanna Torres"
K'Eytyanna growled in annoyance at her communicator. She quickly threw it away from her and stepped back to Hunter.
Suddenly, the lights changed to red alert.
"I wonder what that is, K'Eytyanna."
Quickly, K'Eytyanna dove for the abandoned communicator and snapped,
"I thought you said it was alright, Shadow Wing."
[My apologies. The ships has just sprang back to normal size.]
"Damn it! Emergency transport, two to beam out from this room."
Hunter stepped towards her as the beam locked on, and she saw the transporter-light effect envelop him.
*****************************
Hunter stumbled slightly and realised he was not on the starbase anymore.
K'Eytyanna had flung herself into the pilot's chair and was speaking with the computer. Turning, she said,
"Get to the co-pilot's chair and strap yourself in tight. Inertial dampers can only handle so much. I am sure you can handle sensors."
Gulping and wondering what she meant by that, he did as she told him. Looking down at the console, he saw that 300 dots were moving in groups - some towards the fleeing Galaxy and some towards the Starbase. Quickly, he double-checked the acceleration harness was securly tightened around him.
[Starbase Control to RR Shadow Wing, shut down your power systems. No vessels have undocking authorisation.]
K'Eytyanna snarled and snapped,
"Cut that channel and disengage all connections. If they try to stop us leaving, use the lasers to sever the connections."
[Connection disengagement cycle disabled. Closing connections at our end... Activating lasers... all connections severed.]
"Good... Switching to manual thruster control and activating."
Shadow Wing lept away from the docking hatch. After it had reached a distance of 100 metres, the cloaking device activated.
[K'Eytyanna, long range sensors detect that the Bajoran Alliance has opened fire on the ISC vessels chasing the Galaxy.]
"Hmm... maybe the Bajorans aren't the heartless bastards that I thought they were. The Galaxy looks like it is in big trouble. Having the flagship of ISC as a renegade would really cause trouble, and that will make my job much easier. Open a tight beam channel to the ISS Galaxy, acknowledging that Shadow Wing stands ready to assist. Tell them that I prefer to fight with the under-dog, and they sure seem to need help. Anyway, more kill markings on the hull will help my reputation."
Turning to the weapons console, she tapped in some commands as she spoke, "Setting tracking lock to the least damaged ISC vessel. Shadow Wing, prepare Attack Pattern Alpha with evasives. As we do a fly by, dump some tetryon plasma from the warp core. That should stop them from warping after the Galaxy. Inform the Bajoran Alliance vessels so they don't get caught in it."
*****************************
From out of nowhere, a flood of quantum torpedos, photon torpedos, disruptor and phaser blasts lashed into the shields of the ISC vessel.
The shields flared and crumpled in one part, allowing a quantum torpedo to blast it's
way into the ship and turn part of the ship's sensor array into molten slag.
[Captain, sensors are picking up that a small vessel broke away from the starbase. Half of the main sensor array is destroyed.]
Shadow Wing flew past the damaged ship, corkscrewing for protection. From the rear, a blue cloud of plasma flew out the warp nacelles and quickly enveloped the damaged ship.
[The undamaged sensors report the cloud is tetryon plasma. Warp drive offline and Engineering reports that they will need half an hour for the cloud to disperse and ten minutes to recalibrate the warp drive after that.]
K'Eytyanna Samara, RR Shadow Wing, Freedom Fighter
By: TZQK37B@prodigy.com (MR PAT J BURNS)
"The ISS Disney"
As the cheers died down Captain Price raised a hand saying, "Helm, Maximum warp on my mark. Mr. Burns..." Seconds drifted by as Pat waited for the order to open fire. "...Fire at will."
Pat opened fire releasing a full spread of quantum torpedoes and firing the phaser banks.
Looking at the controls Pat realized that several of the fleet's ships had fired torpedoes at the Galaxy. "All hands brace for impact. " he announced.
The flagship was rocked by what felt like dozens of torpedoes. The Bridge crew flew left and right upon the impact.
Price's voice called out, "Mr. Burns, shield percentage?"
"Captain, Aft shields down to 17 percent."
"Divert power from fore shields to the aft shields. Helm get us the hell out of here, NOW!!"
"Yes sir." the officer replied. The Galaxy jumped into warp.
"Lt.," the Captain said looking up at Pat, "are they pursuing 'mate? "
"Yes sir. However there are dozens of ships hailing us that are offering their assistance." Pat responded.
"Tell them..." Captain Price seemed to be assessing the situation, "Tell them we accept their help."
"Understood sir."
"Also, Mr. Burns did we do any major damage to any of the vessels?"
"The ISS Disney's tractor beams are off-line. That is the only major damage that we caused to any vessel."
"Thank you Lt. Carry out with your orders."
"Right away Captain."
As Pat began responding to the ships who were hailing the Galaxy Lt. Erikson seemed to be arguing with the Captain over our current destination.
Pat glanced at Captain...errr...Commander Thomas to see if he wanted Erikson apprehend. Thomas almost gave a signal, but before he could Erikson rested his argument with the Captain and resumed his work at the Science Station.
"This is getting even more interesting." Pat thought to himself.
Lt. Pat Burns Tactical Dept. Interrogation Officer
By: STEVEN LAURENCE SHARP
Chanor reached engineering, with the other security officers, and immediately started setting up shop in this section. Both Hewson and Wadell where sent straight to a temporary holding cell, whilst Chanor took charge. However, it only took a minute before engineering, in the shape of Lt. JG Boudreau.
"Lieutenant, I've got a ship to run here," she started, "and I don't need your officers cluttering up the place."
"I'm sorry Lieutenant," Chanor replied, staring at a PADD, rather than her, "but we need a new centre for security, so this has to be it at the moment."
"But you're in the way, we've got a hole from deck 37 do..." Boudreau started, but Chanor ignored her, as he headed over to check on the two prisoners. He could feel Lt. Boudreau fuming behind his back, but he ignored her, and went over to speak to Lieutenant Mulich about the prisoners.
After checking on the prisoners, he returned to find a blue skinned lieutenant, accompanied by a young looking human. Lt. Boudreau immediately jumped on them both, as she'd jumped on him, and started demanding what they where doing here. He left it to Boudreau to sort out the problem, which she seemed capable of doing. However, a short while later, he noticed that the entire lower decks had been restored to full integrity! He had no idea how that had happened, but he went over to Lt. Boudreau to ask how.
"Lieutenant, how did the ship suddenly get repaired?" he asked.
Boudreau's response was short, sharp, to the point, and said with a touch of smugness in her tone,
"We work fast in engineering."
He looked at her, then turned back to Mulich. Filling him in on the situation, the two officers started barking orders to get things moving back to deck 38, when he was paged by Lt. Albrecht.
"Lt. Paran. We need security teams set up in vital areas to defend the ship. We may have a boarding on our hands in the next 10 minutes. Lt. Cavanaugh and Lt. Sanchez will give you the details, but we need about 15 squads of 6 men each ready to go in 3 minutes." Albrecht started
"Aye sir, though you must realise we are seriously understaffed at the moment. We only have 89 security officers at the moment, so that will completely fill the compliment you ask for." Chanor replied, doing some quick calculations in his head.
"Understood Lieutenant. Head to security to help out here." Albrecht replied, before paging off.
Chanor looked around at the officers around him, realising that he really need Lt. Sanchez here now, and started organising the officers into squads for distribution around the ship.
Lt. (JG) Paran
By: john.kirk@cadresource.com (John Kirk)
Now the aged shipmaster was faced with serious choices. First: he could continue to remain cloaked, protecting his crew and returning his ship after a failed mission. Second: he could drop the Shadowfire's cloak and try to launch a rescue operation to retrieve the captain and his party in the midst of all this confusion. Both were options he didn't like.
" Blast and damnation. " He swore, smashing his fist on the command chair's arm-rest. The scene on the view-screen was more than frustrating - it was agonizing. The bridge crew tried to avoid looking up at the castellan's outburst. They remembered his last emotional outburst and didn't want to irritate him any further.
Harken sat and stewed, knowing that every minute he wasted trying to figure out what to do next was a minute that put Ursa in danger even further.
" Show me tactical - captain's console. " He demanded. Instantly the arm console of his chair was flooded with vectorized images and symbols projecting a two-dimensional representation of the tactical situation. Harken preferred the 2D imaging system. It gave him a degree of privacy to formulate plans of action, away from the prying eyes of probable critics.
" What's our combat status? " He asked, never raising his head from the hooded viewer on his chair.
" We're at full strength. Our shields are fully charged and the gunnery crews have been on full stand-by as per your original orders. " The tactical officer replied.
" What about those anti-matter bottles I ordered? " He inquired.
" We've had those ready too. They're being held in stasis, since we weren't able to use them before. " The officer stated as if he was reading from a prompter.
" Hmmph... " Harken mumbled in acknowledgement. He didn't like to be reminded of his previous failure to distract the Kah'Tok while they were to be rescuing the sabotage party. he didn't need that dead weight dragging at his mind while he was trying to come up with ...
Dead weight.
Now there was an idea. He quickly turned to face the tactical officer.
" I assume the shuttles are still on stand-by as well. "
" Of course sir. " The officer confirmed with a look of recognition in his eyes. He could see where Harken was going with this line of thought.
****************
The lights fluctuated on and off as the beleaguered Galaxy was bracketed with phser-fire and torpedoes, both Federation and otherwise. Sunder was staring at the force-screen in front of his cell.
" What are you looking at? " Alled asked, looking miserable as ever.
" Quiet. " Sunder whispered. " I told you: we wait and we watch. This might be our only chance. " His eyes never left the screen as he spoke. Alled turned to look at the screen and saw that it was fluctuating with the lights. He started to catch on.
" You think the power level on the screen will drop low enough for us to force our way through it? "
Sunder ignored him. At once there was a sudden jolt, knocking the tellarite off-balance. Sunder quickly grabbed him and noticing the decrease in the power level, threw the tellarite threw the door. He followed immediately afterwards, jumping with his arms covering his head.
A thousand needles pierced their skin, raking their flesh as they passed through the still-resilient screen. It resisted at first, but the force of alled's momentum carried him through, while Sunder's own determination drove him out of the cell and into the security section.
They lay inside the area, gasping on the floor like fish pulled from the water. Sunder's skin was covered in thousands of tiny micro-blisters, while the tellarite's hair afforded him some degree of protection. Luckily there was no-one around. The monitoring desk was un-occupied for some reason. The Alignment captain could only assume that the Galaxy was either rather relaxed when it came to the care of its prisoners or it was in worse trouble than he could have guessed.
" Come on. " He urged the gasping navigator. " We've got to find Heretia and get off this ship. "
" Right... right. " Alled wheezed. " Where do we.. start? " He asked, suddenly thinking about the female Starfleet renegade before himself. A sudden flurry of movement from the doorway caught the corner of his eye. " Look out! " He called.
" Terrorist scum! " A lone burly Starfleet security guard shouted, drawing his phaser on the pair.
" No! " Alled shouted, taking Sunder by surprise as much as the guard. He jumped at the guard, blocking his line of fire to Sunder. The guard reflexively squeezed his trigger-finger, firing the phaser.
Alled was briefly silhouetted in a nimbus of orange energy; held in mid-air until the point of disintegration. There was nothing left of the anxious tellarite.
With a blaze of fire raging in his belly, Sunder shoulder-charged the momentarily-distracted guard taking him down. The phaser rolled out of his hand and fell off to the side somewhere. With Sunder's enormous bulk on top of him, the guard had no choice but to hit the ground. His breath was knocked out of his lungs as Sunder crushed downwards on his solar plexus and breaking his sternum. A savage yank later, and the guard's neck was in a similar state. He managed to spare a brief second in respect for Alled's noble sacrifice.
Ursa stood up and retrieved the phaser. He reached down and also took the guard's boot knife, along with any other weapons or equipment he had, including his agonizer and tunic. He carefully looked around the corner to see if there were any other guards on their way.
Down the hall he could hear several voices shouting excitedly. He quickly put on the guard's tunic and stowed the body in one of the storage compartments nearby. With as much bluster and bravado as he could muster on his face, he strode down the hallway looking like he had a purpose. He noticed that the ship was at red alert status meaning that the other Galaxy personell around him were too occupied to pay him any proper attention.
Thanking all the orion gods for small favours, he quickly searched cell station for Heretia. The first five cells were empty or otherwise occupied, but quick look in the sixth cell revealed a disheveled and badly bruised Heretia Darroch. Her puffy eyes lit up when they saw Sunder approach.
" Ursa! You're here?! " She said disbelievingly. " How did you... " She began.
" Shh. " Ursa motioned. " Let's talk about that later. For now I'm going to get you out of there. " He checked out the security console for the door controls and de-activated the security screen. Heretia limped out. Her uniform was in tattered shreds and she had several agonizer marks on her face and shoulders, but otherwise she seemed okay.
" Are you aliright? " Sunder asked.
" I'm fine. " She replied, though Sunder knew that she was lying. He knew she was trying to keep him focused on what they had to do next. " Where's Alled? " She asked, trying to change the subject. Sunder's frown told her all she needed to know.
" He didn't make it. " He said tight-lipped. " We need to find a way off this ship. "
Heretia noticed the alert status. " What's going on? "
" I don't know. I've
felt a few bracketing shots though. Price must have pissed off more than a few people this time. It feels like he's running under fire. "
" We need to get to a computer station. " Heretia announced. " My access codes probably still work - they couldn't have edited my status with all this going on. "
" There's an access node back at the security station. It doesn't look like much - it must have been something they threw together at the last minute. " Sunder observed.
" There's something else wrong. " Heretia pointed out. " Where's all the security staff? "
Sunder looked around. She was right. He hadn't been able to put his finger on it, but he wasn't expecting to get out of a Federation starship's detention cell so easily. His mind searched for explanations.
" They left the spacedock relatively quickly. Did they have time to recall all of the crew? "
Heretia thought for a second. " I don't think they would have had time. After they picked us up, one of the goons who threw me into the cell remarked that Captain Price had arrived on board with a kid and some Orion slave girl. He was in a real hurry to get out of spacedock for some reason. Minutes later, we were in space. " She shrugged. " That's the only thing it could be. "
" True... and they're probably diverting a lot of the crew on board to keep an eye on our handiwork. Maintaining emergency force-fields takes a lot of careful attention. " He allowed himself a grim smile. " That means that we have a lot more freedom on board than we realized. But we need to get you a new uniform. "
Heretia looked down at herself. Her outfit was even more revealing than it normally was.
" No problem. There's a replicator nearby. I'll just get a new one. "
" Make it quick. I don't want to stay here longer than necessary. " He whispered.
" Alright, but keep your eyes to yourself when I'm getting changed. " She hissed back.
***************
Harken had arrived at the time of decision. The first two options had previously considered were no-win situations. The only logical choice would be to formulate a third option in which he could salvage his mission and rescue the lad and Herry.
He'd have to protect the Galaxy from destruction and face the combined wrath of a multitude of Empire vessels along with a Federation pursuit force. He had two tactical assets that he could exploit.
First: surprise. No-one was aware of the Shadowfire's presence. They'd trailed the Galaxy back and forth through this sector without as much of a hint of notice. With testament to the detection evasion skills of his crew, Harken was also given to thinking that it was also the quality of the ship's modifications he'd personally implemented.
Second: they had the initiative. Harken already had the foresight to prepare every weapon system the Shadowfire posessed - along with a few non-weapon systems for a simultaneous attack on a variety of targets. In short, Harken could throw everything, including the kitchen sink, at the Galaxy's aggressors.
With his sudden appearance causing an immeasurable degree of confusion, he could offer the Galaxy asylum at the nearest Alignment enclave - the nearest being the installation at the Argonii Star System - prevent her from mounting future raids on Alignment shipping lanes, and get Ursa and the lass safely back on board. At least that was the theory. It all sounded good and simple, but would it work?
He took a deep breath and wished he had a bottle of rigellian rotgut that he could hole up in for the duration.
" Right. We're going to do this. " He said out loud, as much for his own benefit than anyone else's. " Stand by to drop cloak. Ready all shuttles and transporters and target all ships that approach the Galaxy on an attack vector. " He swiveled the chair to face the communications officer.
" Laslo. When I give the word, I want you to transmit my pre-recorded statement to the commander of the Galaxy. " He added as an after-thought. " Whether they like it or not, they're being brought into the Argonii Cluster kicking and screaming. "
By: Price
So much had happened in the course of the last 48 hours. In a way, it was all going faster now. Bajoran Empire ships shrinking away when on the verge of attacking, only to reemerge minutes later after the Galaxy had flown past. Hundreds of Admiral Qwon's Imperial Starships pursued the General's ship, and the valuable passenger they were carrying. Originally bent on intercepting and taking the Galaxy back to Starbase 357, now they were busy fighting for their own survival against the surprise attack of the Empire.
The damage caused by the terrorist shuttle bomb that had crippled the Galaxy while she was docked helplessly at Starbase 357 had been fully repaired thanks to the Galaxy's Engineering department and Q's sporadic powers. Lee took comfort in knowing that the criminals that were behind the bombing were safely locked up in the brig.
The Galaxy was currently heading for the Argonii system at full warp.
Captain Price watched Lieutenant St.John relieve the on duty Operations officer and take the station next to Bancroft. Across the bridge, Lieutenant Erikson watched the General. Just a moment earlier the two had words about the ship's present course. Lee knew all too well the dangers of the Argonii system. He didn't relish the idea of informing the crew they were going to navigate the asteroid belt.
Commander Thomas had left the bridge to oversee the repairs in Engineering. He'd just returned to the bridge along with Q once the ship had jumped to warp.
"Captain," Lieutenant Bancroft began, "Sir, we are approaching the Argonii system."
Lee nodded. "Lieutenant Burns, what is the tactical situation 'mate?"
Burns gave the General a quick run down. "The badly damaged Akira is still on our tail Captain, along with a few support ships. The Reagent's ship appears to have broken off and returned to the rest of the Bajoran fleet attacking Starbase 357. The Shadow Wing is still hailing and offering to assist,... at a price I'm sure sir."
Captain Price nodded. "No doubt. What are the conditions of the shields 'mate? When we drop out of warp, we will again be vulnerable to anything our friendly 'Commander Lore wants to throw at us."
"Shields are actually in good shape sir. 87 percent. I don't know what they did in Engineering, but my hat's off to them."
"Oh PLEASE!" said a sarcastic young Q, who now was once again wearing a Captain's uniform. "If it wasn't for me, you'd all be space dust right now."
Lee gave a half grin, "I suppose that's true 'mate. But on the other hand, if it wasn't for you, none of us would be here at all now, would we?"
Q smiled like an amused little boy at a surprised birthday party. The sort of look one gets when they bring out that big, deliciously decorated cake. "Why Captain Price, haven't you learned? This is what we Q do. If it wasn't for us, everything would be so.... boring."
Without replying to Q, other than a shake of his head, Lee looked out the main view screen. "Lieutenant Bancroft, take us out of warp."
"Aye sir." Tebrianne responded before asking, "Where shall I set course to love?"
Lee paused for a moment before pointing. "There. The Argonii Star."
The bridge grew silent for a moment while everyone looked where the Captain was pointing. The Argonii system was a spectacular sight with the vast and well known Argonii Asteroid belt that circled about the outer reaches of the system. Lieutenant Erikson was correct at bringing to the General's attention that no ships that have entered the Argonii system have ever been recorded as returning. The Asteroid field was indeed a treacherous place to pilot a Starship. But Captain Price had already navigated the field once in his own Universe, on board the USS Galaxy under Lieutenant Bancroft's steady hand. He knew it was possible. Still, it didn't help with the tension levels on board the ISS Galaxy. Though nothing was said, the doubt about the General's order could be felt upon the minds of all officers present.
"Yes sir General." Bancroft finally stated before cracking her knuckles and tapping the flight controls of her station.
The officers on the bridge glanced around at each other uneasily, wondering about the Captain's orders, and why they were taking the ship into such a dangerous place. Why they had disobeyed the Admiral's orders and fought their way out of space dock at Starbase 357. Who this mysterious Q child was, and why The General wasn't acting like his normal, merciless self. These and many more questions were on the minds of those officers serving on the bridge when political Officer Wilson exited the turbolift and took her station near the General.
Captain Price knew the Argonii Asteroid belt was navigable. He'd done it before. But he wasn't the only one that knew that. There was a reason why no Imperial starships ever returned after entering the Argonii Asteroid belt, and it didn't have anything to do with giant planetoid objects.
******
*** Bridge, SHADOWFIRE ***
"This Captain is battier than any I've seen." Harkin bellowed. "What the devil is he doing heading into the Argonii asteroid belt?"
A confused communications officer looked at the present Commander of the SHADOWFIRE, "I don't understand sir. Didn't you want the Galaxy to enter the Argonii belt?"
Harkin let out an angry grunt while rubbing the whiskers of his beard. "Aye. But I was expecting to take them in myself, under tow of tractor beam. Once they are among the rocks, that won't be possible."
The space dog sat back in the command chair and thought for a moment. He'd spent what seemed like a lifetime navigating through this asteroid system. Their Alignment enclave was safely hidden just within the Argonii Asteroid belt. No Starship from the IFP or Bajoran Empire ever returned because those that weren't destroyed by the stray asteroids were blown to smithereens by the Alignment defense. What was the ISS Galaxy trying to do? Expose their secret base? Is that why she blasted her way out of space dock at Starbase 357?
"Shall we prepare to intercept them sir?" Laslo asked.
Harkin again frowned. As an Alignment leader, and high ranking member of the syndicate, his duty was clear. He should not allow the Galaxy to enter, and possibly expose their secret base. But Ursa was still on board that Imperial ship. Sunder's son, whom he loved as if he were his very own. How could he order the destruction of the Galaxy and the death of the Captain of the SHADOWFIRE?
"Negative lad. Do as I originally ordered. Sent the transmission and prepare to decloak." Harken said with the conviction of a seasoned commander that had made up his mind, "And keep an eye on that wounded duck following the Galaxy. She shouldn't pose much threat in her present condition once we enter the asteroid belt, but I want to be prepared for anything just the same. You never know, one of the ships accompanying her might also surprise us."
By: "B'Elanna Torres"
K'Eytyanna sent her ship in a tight corkscrew through some of the ISC vessels, dumping tetryon plasma as it went by in an effort to slow down some of the vessels.
"K'Eytyanna, I'm curious as to why you are deciding to help the people who locked you away in their brig?"
She turned to him and spoke,
"I have seen what sort of actions Captain Price of the Galaxy has done previously, and I can assure you that the man currently in command of the Galaxy is definitly not who he may say he is. Anyway, if the ISC is chasing him, he must have really got their noses out of joint, and I like it that way."
Suddenly, lights flashed and a song burst from the speakers. K'Eytyanna jumped in surprise. She winced in pain as it hit a high note, her Klingon hearing making it worse, and snapped,
"Shadow Wing, cut that [bleep] [bleep] garbage now!! I'm in the middle of a dog-fight for crying out loud."
[ Unable to comply... Programming change enacted by Khan Deiran. ]
"Damn you, Shadow Wing!! What happened to the secure partitions?"
[Unable to explain.. ]
Hunter smirked as K'Eytyanna started smashing her fists into the consoles, glad that she had reinforced them for when she took out her anger on them.
K'Eytyanna Samara, RR Shadow Wing, Freedom Fighter
By: john.kirk@cadresource.com (John Kirk)
" Hailed? " Price asked. " By who? "
" By the Alignment battlecruiser that's been trailing you for the past week, Price. Oh really... you ARE the limit. " Q sardonically quipped. " They've been cloaked for some time. I believe they're ready to ... Ah! There they are. " The pubescent supra-creature announced, waving at the image of the Shadowfire that had just appeared on the screen.
St. John quickly checked his console. " Confirmed Captain. It's the OPC Shadowfire. Commanded of late by ... Ursa Sunder, if our records are correct. " He whistled. " This bloke's worth quite a bit of prize money to the starship that bags him sir. He's got quite the reputation for showing up when he's least expected. "
Price digested this bit of information. " Very well... put them through. "
The screen changed images and the vision of the gleaming white Klingon D10 K'Vort Attack Cruiser was replaced by the picture of an elderly orion male. He wore the traditional leather Alignment battle dress uniform topped off with a long mane of bleached white hair. Gritty stubble peppered his green face. He held the rank of a Ship's Castellan - or shipmaster, as was the colloquial term.
" This is Harken of the OPC Shadowfire. Captain Price of the ISS Galaxy: you are hereby ordered to stand down your vessel, drop your shields and prepare to be boarded. The Galaxy is a known pirate vessel that has flagrantly defied interstellar law and borders in its frequent raids on commercial shipping... "
" Commander Harken, we don't have time..., " Price began but to no avail. The orion commander continued to speak as if he had not heard the terran captain.
" ... Captain Price and the crew of the Galaxy must stand trial for its numerous crimes and acts of barbarity. On behalf of the people and citizens of the Alignment Worlds, in whose space you are trespassing, I order you to reduce your speed. I place you under arrest... " the orion continued.
" It's a recorded message broadcasted to appear live! " Bancroft suddenly shouted.
" Damn! " Price swore softly. " They've pulled a right caper, mates. Looks like that Harken fella's been around. Full sensor sweep - they've delayed us for a reason and I want to know where they are. NOW!" he roared.
***************
" Any signal degradation on that sensor projection, Laslo? " Harken asked his communications officer. It all hinged on Harken's guile - the ability to confuse his opponent for a vital few seconds to allow him the upper hand. He wasn't prepared for the Galaxy to enter the asteroid field on her volition. Still, he knew this area of space better than anyone. The Federation captain was bound to make a mistake. it was just up to Harken to be there to capitalize on it. With any luck the false sensor image he was generating of the Shadowfire would stall the human long enough for the battlecruiser to get into position.
" No sir. The image generator is holding steady. If they attempt a traceback, they'll locate the satellite in the centre of the image. " Laslo answered.
" Good. Move in to their bad side and hold them at point blank. Keep a watchful eye out for those escort ships behind them. I don't know what they're up to, but they won't take the Galaxy from me. Not this time. "
****************
Sunder and Heretia strode down the hallway, looking like they owned the place. A few carefully-placed applications of a regen-balm from a med kit and the gracefully donated female science officer's uniform later, the pair were fairly indistinguishable from the majority of the starship crew.
" What's the plan now, Ursa? " Heretia asked. " By the way, this isn't the route to the shuttle bay in case you were lost but didn't want to ask for directions. "
" I know. " Sunder said, ignoring the jibe. " Forget the shuttle bay for the time being. They'd lock out shuttle controls the moment we cleared the deck - that is, if we managed to even clear the doors. " He shook his head. " No, we're going to have to get to the bridge and release the lock-outs from the engineering station. If the engineering staff see the command from the bridge, they won't question it. It's our best bet. "
Heretia nodded in agreement at Sunder's logic. " I see what you mean. But won't we look conspicuous on the bridge? "
" Oh, we'll just have to blend in, Herry-girl. If anybody asks, just say you're with me. "
She paused. " What if they ask you? "
Sunder winked at her. " I'll just say I'm with you. "
****************
" I've got all weapons locked on the enemy vessel, sir. " Bancroft said through gritted teeth, as if she could taste the Shadowfire's blood already.
" Down girl... " Price muttered. " Think about it 'mate: do y'think they'd give us such an obvious target? " He asked over the recorded message from the Alignment officer still playing on the central screen. " Oh... and turn that off now. We need 'em to delay Lore and his cronies before they start clouting us. We haven't got the time for this. " He addressed Lt. St John.
" We don't need another enemy. St John: open up a channel to the Shadowfire. Tell them we acknowledge their transmission and request asylum and safe escort to our destination in the Argonii system. At that point we will receive boarding parties and turn over command to ... whatever-his-name-is. "
There were gasps all over the bridge. Price looked around and adopted a casual manner.
" Trust me. " He drawled. " Let's all not get our knickers in a knot now, people. "
St. John opened all channels to the Alignment ship, despite his own better judgement. What was the General up to? He looked over at Wilson, who kept her face impassive as stone, revealing nothing.
" Very well sir... sending hails now. Hope they don't think we've gotten soft. " He mumbled under his breath.
***************
" They're what? " Harken could hardly believe his ears.
" They - they're surrendering. " Laslo reported incredulously. " They're offering to stand down once their business is completed, and they're requesting asylum from the Federation. "
Harken was stunned, yet forced himself to believe this was a trick.
" Are we in position? " He asked.
" Yes... and all phasers are targeted. Their shields are at 87% capacity and the bulk of their bomb damage has been repaired, but there's no way they could absorb a concentrated blast of firepower into their flank. " The tactical officer reported.
" Good. " Harken decided to test the water. " Then let's see what this monkey's up to. De-cloak, and open a channel to the Galaxy. "
***************
Sunder managed to ... convince the turbo-lift guard that he and Heretia definitely had business on the bridge. He took the security officer's harness and stowed the body in the shaft.
They had just entered the bridge when a bridge officer shouted: " K'Vort class attack cruiser de-cloaking off the port flank! " The pair looked at each other. An instant of recognition was shared between them as they realized who that could only be.
" What's her status? " The captain shouted.
So this was the legendary "General Lee", Sunder thought. Not as imposing as he imagined him to be.
" Her guns are hot and they're pointed right at us. She's matching our velocity and attitude while maintaining warp. "
" Nice trick. " Price commented. " Are they receiving our hails? " He asked, to Sunder's surprise.
" Yes. They accept our ... surrender. " The word was obviously distasteful to St. John's palate. " But they warn us that any deceit will be met with extreme prejudice. "
" Of course it will be. " Price answered. " Now, open a direct channel to their commander. "
The image of Harken's features was a friendly sight to Heretia and Sunder. They stepped forward into the screen's field of view, hoping that the old space dog would see them. After a few seconds they split up: Sunder standing off to the left of the Captain, appearing to stand watch, while Heretia busied herself at different consoles, pretending to take readings.
Price spoke up at the appearance of the Alignment commander's face.
" Commander Harken. I'm Captain Price - we must talk. "
By: "Derek "
“Can you tell me the way to Thermoplyae?”
Mac grunted as the Klingon ship made another Hi-Gee maneuver. As the acceleration harness strained against his body he cast a glance over at his pilot. She was fully immersed in the attack but Mac could still see the very things that had attracted him to her. She still seethed with the same passion and energy that Mac had seen when she was a captive aboard the Galaxy. He was suddenly alerted from his stare as a new blip appeared on the screen..
“New contact off starboard!” shouted Mac, “Appears to be an Alignment ship.”
[I was just about to announce that, Terran.] stated the ships computer, icily.
Mac grinned as he transferred the image of the Orion Cruiser to the main screen.
“Great, all that’s left, are for the Romulans and the Borg to show up!” Chuckled Mac as he glanced at Samara.
“I think we have enough enemies already.” Replied K’Eytyanna matter-of-factly.
“We are going to have to work on that sense of humor.” Mumbled Mac under his breath.
“What did you say?” Asked K’Eytyanna harshly, her eyes not leaving the targeting scanner as she blasted another IFP ship.
“Nothing.” Yelled Mac, innocently
[He said that he would have to work on your sense of humor.] Interrupted Shadow Wing.
Mac grimaced at the remark and turned back to the screen. Glancing at the slight grin that crossed K’Eytyanna’s face.
“Remind me the next time we kiss about my humor, McKenzie.” grinned K’ Eytyanna.
Mac was sure that his gulp could be heard all the way to the Galaxy.
Lt(jg) Hunter McKenzie, ASST Tactical Officer, USS Galaxy
By: "Kornan Rios"
Galaxy "Another one bites the dust"
**** Bridge of the Regents Flagship ****
"Regent!! The starbase's shields are at 3% shall we inform the ships with the new weaponary to fire."
The regent turned to me, With a look that could kill anyman.
"Inform the fleet and bring us in to attack!"
I turned back to the console and sent the message. Tatical began it's run on the starbase. The weapons on the flagship fired. Hitting the phaser aray on the starbase. The remaining ships came in for the Kill. The Full might of the Empire's Fleet attacked the starbase. The starbase was destroyed in a magnificent explosion. The regent jumped out of his chair.
"All stations report!"
the Klingon at Tatical stood up.
"Regent We have lost one ship! the Cardassian ship Dornar."
The regent looked down at the floor. "At least they died with honour."
The Intendent stood up and moved to the regent. Placing her arms around him and wispering something in his ear. The Intendent turned to the face the bridge.
"All right. communications order the fleet to the next sector. Attack and destroy the outpost. Order 1/4 of the fleet to follow us, Helm Set course for the I.S.S. Galaxy. Goto Full cloak and max warp!"
"Aye Ma'am"
By: Stuart Clapperton
**** Bridge - ISS Akira ****
"Report" Lore said as he sat down in the Command chair.
"We are gaining on them sir." The First Officer stated.
"How long until we are in transporter range Mr Serak?" Lore straightened out the crease in his fresh uniform.
"Ten minutes sir, however I must point out that we can't transport through their shields." A young male Vulcan sitting at Ops stated.
"I realise that, Ensign." Lore put strong emphasis on the last word. Finally the young Q would be in his grasp. Qwon could have the boy, but only after he had stolen and then stripped the young boy of his powers. Then he would control the galaxy, and all the races in it. Price and Sterner would be the first victims of his new power, they would be his guinea pigs, he would make them suffer, and suffer they will. Then there was Jack, boy would he pay for the humiliation received at Omega Colony Delta One. Lore smiled, an evil smile, one that few people had ever seen, and of those who had seen it, most had died shortly afterwards, for this was a laugh that only appeared when he was about to get what he wanted, power!
Lore touched one of the buttons on the arm of his chair. "Lore to Lieutenant Goldman" He started tapping the fingers of his left hand on the other chair arm impatiently.
"Goldman here sir."
"Have Alpha ready to transport over to the Galaxy in 5 minutes." Lore stated to the Lieutenant.
"Aye sir. Out." Goldman signed off.
Lore had one more thing to do before leaving the bridge for the Transporter room, he had to find out who the man that had jumped him while he was about to capture Price, was.
**** Engineering - ISS Galaxy ****
Engineering was nearly deserted, the Chief having sent damage control parties to key areas of the ship, in case of attack. Ensign Duane casually strolled along the gangway towards a small console. He was a loner, he didn't have any friends on the ship. All he really wanted to do was get a transfer from the Galaxy, to a location closer to his family, closer to his Megan, and their daughter Diane. He hadn't met his daughter yet, he was given assignment on the Galaxy while Megan was Seven months pregnant, and he hadn't been able to see them since.
Diane would be 3 months old now, probably starting to walk, while he was stuck here on this stinkin' cesspool of violence, chaos and anarchy.
Duane reached the console, and the thoughts of his loved ones burned stronger than ever in his mind. He wasn't proud of what he was about to do, but he had been promised that he would be able to see his wife and daughter soon. He heard voices coming from the Chief Engineer's office and knew that he had to hurry. Connecting the medical tricorder to the console, Duane set it to the side and placed a small device next to it. "Computer, load program TakeDown One from this tricorder."
"TakeDown One loaded." The computer responded.
"Set no-warn, Execute program TakeDown One." Duane stated to the computer. He pressed a button on his tricorder to make sure that no verbal warnings about the program would be heard.
"Confirm" The computer flashed on his tricorder screen.
Ensign Duane disconnected his tricorder from the console and proceeded as swiftly as he could to the turbolift. Duane wanted to be scarce when the program counted down to zero.
[One minute]
Duane reached the 'lift and entered it. "Transporter Room 2" he stated. The 'lift started off towards the deck requested. Duane started fidgeting, he was nervous. He had for the past few months been doing the mundane and tiresome jobs that required doing. He had not once complained about the type of work, or the workload, and always completed the work on time. This was rarely the way to advance oneself in rank, which mostly came about due to assassination, so due to that, he was still an Ensign. But all that didn't matter now, for in a few minutes he would be transferred off the Galaxy and he would be onto his way to his family.
[Twenty Seconds]
The door slid open and Duane entered Transporter Room 2, intent on disabling the sensors that would tell the bridge crew that someone transported on or off the ship. He stopped when he saw a Security officer standing on guard by the transporter platform. The officer trained his Phaser Rifle on Duane and asked him why he was here.
Duane had to think fast, and when he opened his mouth the words just flowed out of him like water out a dam. "There's been some reports of power fluctuations coming from the transporters as they are used. The Chief sent me here to fix them." The Security officer, a Lieutenant by the name of Polaris nodded his approval and raised his weapon to his shoulder.
[Five Seconds]
Duane pulled out his tricorder and started checking the system, looking for the chip that housed the transporter sensors. He pulled open a panel and then removed one of the chips. "There that should do it." He looked up at Polaris who was looking towards Duane with interest. "Do you want to come over here and see what I've done?" He kept his tone friendly and warm.
**** Bridge - ISS Galaxy ****
"Sir, the Akira is following us into the asteroid belt, as is the SHADOWFIRE." Pat said from Ops.
"Thank you 'mate" Lee replied.
Price looked over to Bancroft who was sitting at Helm. *I hope she's as good as my Bancroft* He glanced at the tactical display on the main screen and then spoke to Tebrianne. "Careful now, I don't really want to become a pile of cosmic dust."
"Aye Cap..." Tebrianne started to say.
"Someones accessed the shield controls Captain" Pat shouted from Ops.
"What are they trying to do you 'mate?" Price demanded.
Pat checked his console and looked up. "Whoever it is, wants to take shields offline. Engineering is taking care of it now sir."
**** Main Transporter Room - ISS Akira ****
Lore and 4 of his best men stood on the transporter platform, ready to transport over to the Galaxy. All that they waited for was the shields of the Galaxy to be turned off. The allotted time that the shields were surposed to be turned off by came and went, with no change. Lore swore to himself and stormed to the nearest communications panel. "Lore to Bridge"
"Dursie here sir" The Akira's First Officer replied.
"What's the status of the Galaxy's shields?" Lore asked. Damn bugger, he probably got himself captured. He's probably in an agony booth now. He'll wish he was dead before they finish with him. It's the only way he will have to see his wife and child.
"They are still at 87 percent sir. Is there anything else?"
Lore responded negatively and cut the channel. He tore out the room, headed for the bridge. If he couldn't have the boy then he would make sure no one would. As he entered the Bridge from the turbolift, the First Officer Durnsie spoke up. "Sir, they're heading into the asteroid belt.
"Follow them. I want Price stopped." Lore stated as he eased himself into the plush command chair.
**** Transporter Room 2 - ISS Galaxy ****
[Minus Five Seconds]
As Duane showed Polaris the place where the chip used to be, Polaris noticed that the Sensor chip had been removed. "You damn bastard!" Polaris yelled as he tried to shoot Duane with his rifle, however Duane was quicker, and had pulled a long sharp knife from his boot. With one hand on the man's chin, the other, holding the knife came quickly across his throat, cutting him wide open. Blood spurted from the mortal wound as Lieutenant Commander Lawson dropped from an access panel in the ceiling, onto the platform. The now lifeless corpse fell to the ground.
"Sorry Mr Duane, but Mr Lore couldn't make it. Apparently the shields haven't gone offline." Jack stated as he glanced around the room.
Duane stood there, eyes downcast and an audible sigh came from him.
"An interesting knife Mr Duane, May I look at it?" He said as Duane bent down to clean the knife on the man's uniform.
"He promised to take me to my family. I tried to do what he wanted, and failed. He'll hunt me down now." Lawson was studying the knife with interest. "Romulan, if I'm not mistaken!" Jack stated.
"Why yes, my great uncle gave it to me. He said that he took it from their former homeworld when he was there last, and that I should use it to kill those that bugged me." Duane said in reply. He was getting impatient now. "What are you going to do to me?"
Lawson plunged the knife deep into Duane's body, piercing his heart. As the life force drained away from Duane, Lawson spoke up. "You bug me Mr Duane, I should hand you over to Interrogation, but I'm fed up with people turning traitor. Goodbye." Lawson stepped over the nearly dead body of Ensign Duane, tucked the blade, which he had just cleaned on Duane's uniform, into his belt and strode out the door.
Lt. Cmdr. Jack Lawson
By: Price
"Yes. They accept our ... surrender." The word was obviously distasteful to St. John's palate. "But they warn us that any deceit will be met with extreme prejudice."
"Of course it will be. " Price answered. " Now, open a direct channel to their commander 'mate."
Price spoke up at the appearance of the Alignment commander's face.
"Commander Harken. I'm Captain Price - we must talk."
The white hared, leather clad war dog Orion narrowed one eye while raising the eyebrow of the other. ["What is there to talk about General? We accept your surrender."]
Captain Price could tell this Orion Commander didn't hold him in very high regards. His tone and manner stated quite plainly that he despised, even hated the General. "Look 'mate. I get the feeling that you are not very fond of me for whatever reason," Lee started.
Harkin crossed his arms and let out an expressive grunt as if to say "that's an understatement!"
Lee continued, "but there is something that I think you should know about the Argonii star."
A suspicious look formed on Harkin's face. With a nod of his head to make the query sound as if he was uninterested, he asked, ["And what would that be Captain?"] in a skeptical tone.
Captain Price motioned outwards with his hand, as if pointing at the Argonii star itself. "If you scan the Star, you'll notice increased solar activity 'mate. The Star is on the verge of going supernova. When that happens, everything in this system will be destroyed. The Argonii Star, the asteroid belt, the orbiting planets..." Lee's eyes narrowed and he lingered on the last part, "...and their moons."
Harkin kept a dead pan stare at the Captain of the ISS Galaxy. Experience had taught him when to show surprise, and when to remain calm, even when news as unsettling as this was sprung upon him. Unfortunately, Laslo was not as disciplined.
["Commander! The Alignment base and the surrounding colonies will be destroyed!"]
Harkin whipped a silencing look to the emotional officer. ["Check on it man."] The white bearded Orion snapped before returning his gaze to Captain Price. ["We will scan the star and see if your claims are true General Lee. But if this is some sort of trick,..."] Harkin raised his fist and extended a threatening finger, ["I will personally see to it that your death is a long, slow, painful process."]
While the exchange was going on, Lieutenant Erikson had taken the liberty to run the Galaxy's sensors over the Argonii Star. He was shocked to discover the early stages of the impending supernova. Needless to say, it didn't comfort him any knowing that the Galaxy was still heading straight for the dying star.
"It's no trick Commander. We have to reach the Argonii Star before it's too late. If you have any sense of decency, you'll inform your people and begin evacuating them at once. There isn't much time remaining." Captain Price explained.
Harkin looked carefully at the General's image on the view screen. This didn't seem like the same Imperial Pirate that he and the late Sunder and now his son Ursa, had spent decades trying to enact revenge upon for the skirmish at Omnicron Theta three. That man was a heartless, lying murderer. Cold as a block of Breen Ice. But the man before him was showing compassion. Concern for the safety and well being of others that had nothing to do with his own plans or objectives. It puzzled Harkin. ["I will have my people check into it General."] the Orion bellowed before deactivating the view screen.
Captain Price glanced around, already a number of the bridge crew personnel were giving him strange stares.
"Lieutenant Bancroft, once we have cleared the outer asteroid belt, set course for the Argonii Star. Full impulse 'mate."
Over her shoulder, Tebrianne called back, "Aye Captain."
After a long moment of awkward silence, Lee turned to Q and asked softly, "You are sure that the modifications to the structural integrity field will hold 'mate?"
The young Q looked at the General and placed a hand on his chest with a shocked expression forming on his face. "Why Captain Price, have I ever let you down before?"
Lee shook his head and turned away, not wanting to bother answering the smiling Q's question. If the integrity field didn't hold, the Galaxy and all of the passengers would soon be crushed under the extreme gravitational forces of the Argonii Star that now was beginning to completely fill the Galaxy's main view screen.
"I hope you are right Q." the Captain said under his breath.
******
*** ISS Akira ***
"Sir! They have disappeared into the Asteroid belt. I can no longer track them." The flight control officer of the badly damaged but still functional warship ISS Akira explained.
Behind him, sitting in the Captain's chair, Lieutenant Commander Lore scowled, "Follow them in. If they can navigate the asteroid belt, so can we."
"But sir! No Imperial starship has ever safely navigated the Argonii asteroid belt."
Lore smirked, "Maybe that's because I've never tried Lieutenant! Take us in now or the agonizer booth will look like a vacation compared to what I will do to you."
"Yes, yes sir..." the flight officer said reluctantly.
"'Commander, we are receiving a signal from Starbase 357. They are requesting assistance sir. The Bajoran Empire forces are over powering the Imperial defenses. They say they can't hold out much longer sir..." the communications officer relayed to Lore.
Lore's eyes narrowed. He'd past by the 300 plus Empire ships, the ones that had so badly damaged the Akira earlier. They seemed to posses a new technology that allowed their phaser weapons to pass right through the Imperial shield systems. He didn't relish the idea of going back to face them again. His positronic brain predicted that they would easily defeat the forces at Starbase 357 within the hour.
"Maintain course and speed. Capturing the ISS Galaxy is our top priority Lieutenant." Lore barked.
"But sir!" the communications officer questioned.
Lore moved quickly, grabbing the man by his uniform and raising him up off of his feet with one hand. "I will not have my orders questioned again! Do you understand me Ensign!?" Lore then tossed the crewman across the command well and tugged at the red sash about his waist before sitting back down in the command chair.
"Wha... what shall I tell the other ships that follow us 'Commander?" the shaken communications officer asked getting himself up off the floor.
"Tell them to follow us in. And have them prepare to initiate Lore Omega One. They will know what that means." Lore ordered smugly.
"Several Empire ships have broken off from the Starbase and are on an intercept course 'Commander. What shall I tell them about that?" the Ensign asked.
Lore's eyes narrowed. "Lore Omega One." He repeated flatly, "Now transmit and stop wasting my time!"
"Yes sir!" the Ensign quipped back in a scared tone before contacting the following ISS ships and relaying the Lieutenant Commander's orders.
*****
*** Reagent's Ship ***
"The Galaxy and the pursuing Imperial ships have disappeared into the Argonii asteroid belt Reagent. We can no longer detect them."
A scowl formed on the face of Reagent Worf. "Cowards! Do they think they can hide from the Empire in a field of rocks! Order our ships to decloak and set course to follow them into the asteroid belt."
"Immediately Reagent." The officer saluted and went to carry out his orders.
The Intendant stood by calmly, leaning near the Reagent and stroking his eyebrow playfully. "It won't be long now before the head of General Lee will be in your trophy case my pet." Kahn purred.
Worf let out a grunt and smiled evilly, showing his sharp, warriors teeth.
A few minutes later eighty ships from the Empire began weaving in and out of the Argonii asteroid belt. Many were destroyed out of carelessness piloting around such a dangerous place. But the majority of the ships, those piloted by skilled warriors of the Empire, were managing the feat nicely.
Then all hell broke loose.
Giant explosions racked the asteroid belt as Empire ships began to explode in droves. Those that didn't instantly have warp core breaches were driven into the giant asteroids from the force of the explosions surrounding them.
"It's a mine field!" Worf bellowed when he realized how stupid he'd been for following the course taken by the Imperial ships. "ALTER COURSE! ALTER COURSE!" The Reagent pointed and gestured violently, but it was of no avail. The Intendant's Flag ship struck one of the disguised anti-matter mines Lieutenant Commander Lore had the Imperial ships lay out among the asteroids and rocked with a violent explosion that sent it spinning backwards, careening into the side of a mammoth asteroid. Plasma fires broke out from the warp nacelles and along the underside of the ship. Hull breaches explosively decompressed many of the lower decks before emergency bulk heads slid down to contain the fragile atmosphere inside the Reagent's crippled vessel.
"How could you be so stupid!" Intendant Kahn screamed. "We are all going to die and it's your fault!" Nilani slapped Worf with the back of her hand, before turning and rushing to make it to the escape hatches.
"Take us clear of the asteroid belt! Now!" Work ordered, ignoring the Intendant's insult, being more concerned with avoiding the remaining anti-matter mines and the debris left behind from the 80 Empire ships that had just been destroyed from the chain reaction explosions.
"Reagent, engineering reports a warp core reactor overload is in progress. We have to abandon ship."
"How long?!" Worf growled.
"They estimate five minutes Reagent."
"We have time to clear the asteroid belt then. Make it so! Once we are clear, launch all escape pods." Worf wiped the trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth on the back of his hand and looked at the escape hatch with evil, warriors eyes. Withdrawing his d'k tahg, he held it up. "I must go see the Intendant and apologize... personally." Worf stated in a blood lustful tone before exiting the bridge and following after Kahn.
By: Rob
Deiran walked into the Brig and looked upon his arch enemy. The man who almost had him assassinated, the man who said that Deiran would be the first officer of the Galaxy if he killed Captain Price. But, how long would that last? Deiran knew that it was a rouse to take the scent tracking dogs off Sterner when the hatchet came down on the slab of wood, called justice.
But, the tides were turned and now Sterner was at the mercy of Deiran Casey. And that was a death sentence in itself. Deiran could have Sterner killed. But what would that prove? Everyone knew that Deiran, "The Butcher Of Bajor" was a mean, dangerous man. But, Deiran had other plans.
Deiran stared into Sterner’s beady eyes. Sizing the man up, trying to detect Sterner’s fear. As if he was picking up its scent. Deiran could put fear in a man by just looking at him, especially if he had the upper hand. He was TNT, ready to explode at any moment, without warning.
"Well Sterner, trapped like a rat in a cage," Deiran laughed hysterically, "how appropriate. I have been thinking what I am going to do with you. The list is long I must admit. And I’m enjoying this immensely."
"It looks like you have had enough time to think about such things on this little vessle of yours." Joerg just replied sarcastically.
"The man who is wielding the power is always stronger, but there will be a time when you will be all alone again." he also added.
"Empty words from someone so frail Joe. I know you’re wondering why I kidnapped you. Hmmmm," Deiran stopped and pretended to be thinking. "No wait, kidnapping is such a strong word. How about Rescued? Yes, rescued is better, more indicative of my plans for you. Shall I go into detail Joe?" Deiran smiled, enjoying Sterner’s distaste for his current circumstances.
"I have thought about slavery. I have thought about selling you to pirates as a mess hall cook. I have even thought about selling you to a brothel on Orion Prime. Or selling you to the Mines of Crataria, 18 hour days you know, with little food or water. Or kidnapping Ronni, stripping you both and implanting you with fertile drugs so you can breed and make slaves for me to sell across the Milky Way. They all sound so apropos, I must admit." Deiran laughed at his diabolical plans. Letting Sterner squirm, wanting the man to beg for his life.
"These plans of yours do sound acceptable to me, as long as I don't have to see you again Deiran!" Joerg angrily growled.
"That feeling is mutual Joe! I hope I never have to see your face in this life or in the one after. May the Prophets sepearate us for all time."
Sterner would never beg Deiran. He was too proud.
"I am just kidding Sterner. Although the breeding idea sounds quite fun for you doesn’t it? Sex all day every day until your too old to breed any longer. I mean Ronni is blue, but the body ain’t bad. And when she aged, I’d get another female. Maybe even two." Deiran laughed.
"Sounds like something more suited to you Deiran than me," Sterner replied.
"Doesn’t it though. I actually plan to have a harem when I return to Bajor. What a massive empire I will have. Illegal and legitimate strung together like a tapestry throughout the Galaxy."
"Get to the point would you?" Sterner said, getting tired of Deiran’s games.
"Sure. You can die or you can be sold into slavery or you can take the price off my head and go free. If you try to kill me our contract will be voided and by Bajoran law I will have every right to have you killed. So if you don’t keep your word and call off your dogs, then your a walking dead man. Either way I win. I always win. The choice is yours."
"Am I getting this one right? You want me to remove the price on your head and after that I'm free to go?" Joerg asked, a bit curiously since at that very moment he thought that the only person loyal to him was Joerg himself, since he no longer was head of the once famous Tiger squad.
"Yes, we will never meet again. At least I pray to the Prophets we never lay eyes on each other again. You stay out of my way and I’ll leave you alone."
"I agree and except the terms. I’ll call off my assassins and erase the contract on your life."
"Ah, I knew you were a smart man. And remember Joe, if you come after me, The Kahn house, the Empire itself and my goons will hunt you until they rip your heart out of your chest cavity," Deiran stood face to face with Sterner, if it wasn’t for the forcefield, their noses would be touching. Sterner could see the emptiness in Deiran’s eyes, as if his soul had been erased and he said, "Don’t cross me! Or you will die!"
Deiran turned on his heel and left the Brig, his incessant cackle echoing through the Brig and the Corridor.
By: "Daniel Woodward"
***Jefferies Tube, outside Holodeck 4***
All sorts of people were scattering to repair the giant hole in the Galaxy. Endris thought the ship looked like a lop-sided colander or a very big sieve. But that's what one might expect from a Tellarite's cuisine-based outlook. With the distraction of repair, plus the pursuit of 2 armadas, it was simple for Gakor to evade the gold sashes, who didn't even expect her presence! The opaque face shield of the EVA suit also helped earnestly.
The Butcher was surprised when the hull of the ship suddenly sprang back into being. It was almost as if someone ran a dermal regenerator over the ship! At the same time, the whine and crackle of the force field extinguished, giving Endris increased mobility. Due to her meticulous study of the ISS Galaxy's lay out, the Colonel quickly located a vacant holodeck.
Used routinely for crew training, the device didn't even balk at the intruder. And Endris knew what she was looking for. The Golden Arches! The control circuits could be used to build a scrambler for her suit's communicator. And it would attract the attention of the person she was interested in. A person that figured prominently in the reports filtered back to Tellar prior to her failed attempt to steal the Star Ship.
One Grixble Flummux. A holodeck genius who tinkered with many portable computing devices. Careful to provide a secured, scrambled channel, she left a tempting voice message for the Bolian:
This is Colonel Endris Gakor. I am prepared to reward you handsomely for a EHF program. The Emergency Holographic Fugitive should resemble me in all aspects, you can access my photos in ship's records. I have stashed quite a bit of latinum away with my contacts in the Ferengi system. My operatives will contact you shortly to determine delivery terms for the unit.
Gakor knew Flummux was a sap, dealing with plants for all these years for feast's sake! He couldn't resist the lure of a new toy. His attitude was almost like that villain she had once outwitted on the outskirts of the Argelius system. As Endris recalled, Fajo was currently breaking rocks at the heavenly resort prison Ruea Pente. Silently, the Butcher smiled knowing the Grixble's foibles would drive him to have the prototype ready before snack time.
Using the scrambler unit, which TLA soldiers learned to construct as part of their field training, Endris next contacted Angela Dana. She was still under the influence of the Elaasian potion, but the engineer's delayed responses indicated the fluid might be purging itself from her blood stream. A brief conversation confirmed this, in fact, Cat had taken steps to detox the Deltan. Luckily, Endris was prepared for this.
Recalling the deal she made with the Doctor, Gakor asked baldy to relay the PADD with her thumb signature promising TLA sanctuary to the Caitian. This was one promise she would keep in order to escape!
Covertly, the Colonel activated a buried suggestion to meet her in a Jefferies tube far away from the ongoing hub of activity. The engineer would bring her the tiny cube of freedom!
***Sickbay***
Cat stretched out and gave a contented purr. Tash had not been sighted for the last couple of days and it seemed a waste to let all this 'luxury' go unused. With hands behind her head and her feet on the desk she allowed herself time to relax for a few minutes.
The hole in the Galaxy produced few injuries, most had died by the explosion or from the decompression. The injured were easily covered by the rest of the staff. As to the ongoing battle outside, she had given up on worrying about the outcomes of ship combat a long time ago, she could've worried since they ran from the station but it would make no difference. She had no control on the destiny of the ship. She worried about her future, that was something she had some control over.
She watched through the glass walls an important part of her future and that was Engineer Dana. The woman had been mind controlled to follow the orders of terrorist that tried to take over the ship. And now given orders by the ACIO could now be the key to return some semblance of normality for Cat.
Cat looked up in interest, Dana was talking to someone over the intercom. Cat used some tricks that only worked because she was in the CMO's office and was able to listen in to the last half of the conversation between Endris and Angela.
'Hmm, so the Pig wants Angela's help. Well, she will have to wait for me. I am not going to let Angela out of my sight. What would Albrecht do for me if I brought his ex-girlfriend in?' Cat smiled at the thought. Cat saw that Angela was preparing to leave and intercepted her by claiming that some new tests had to be done to help in her 'healing.' Angela argued, saying how she had to go, she had something important to do. Cat looked at her and Angela saw that Cat was not going to be swayed by anything she said. Knowing that continuing the argument would only increase the time in Sickbay, Angela gave in. Cat placed a small amount of a bio-tracer within the Deltan's blood stream. The doctor could now follow Dana wherever she went on the ship with a tricorder.
Cat completed her preparations before Grixble entered and passed her a PADD. After a small whispered conversation, the Bolian slunk out of the room, as if he was trying to be invisible or some spy. Cat was surprised to see the promise the Tellarite had made earlier, this time in writing and with a thumbprint. It was obvious that this was the 'bribe', Cat was going to make sure it was genuine. The Colonel was going to get another visitor!
***Rondez-Vous, An hour and a half later***
As expected, Grixble was able to create a portable holocube. Gakor had her reluctant Deltan friend activate and test the device, in case the insidious recluse had included any nasty surprises. A yard in front of the pair, a replica of Endris appeared in the Jefferies Tube. The doppelganger even had the same shoulder wound as the authentic Colonel! "Please state the nature of felonious plan", the fakir oozed in Gakor's native tongue. Satisfied that the item functioned as promised, the Tellarite thumb-signed a second PADD that Angela brought as instructed. This authorized funds transfer for Grixble's fine efforts.
Gakor had asked Dana to return to her quarters after delivering payment for the EHF program. Angela had a few other tasks to perform, but first, she leaked word to her partner of Gakor's where abouts.
***Corridor, near 10 Forward Lounge***
Lt Cdr Albrecht and the newly promoted Gary Trabuco walked in the passageway, heading towards the ship's lounge facility. Ten Forward reminded him of a new rumor he had heard. As impossible as it seemed, the ACIO had heard stories that several people had sited a very familiar Tellarite near the bar! *Why would she come back*, Matthew wondered. *Perhaps just to save her skin*, he concluded.
He resumed his part of the conversation with Trabuco, "Gary, you are asking too many questions too soon. None of us knows how the staffing situation will pan out. With the General back, Commander Thomas will probably return to Interrogation. I will return to my previous position, and Sanchez will probably remain in Interrogation. I can't guarantee your spot." He was getting twitchy signals from the former ensign again. It seems the loyalty he had worked hard to get from the young man was waning again.
Under his uniform, Trabuco had stealthily concealed a Veron-T disruptor. With the General's return, his future promised to be more and more bleak. "Sir, you know how important a position in Interrogation is to me. And you need to be aware that I will do anything to secure it!"
While Trabuco contemplated permanently dismissing his superior officer, Gakor rounded the corner, heading directly for the pair. The suave Tellarite glared directly at her former Imzadi's face, challenging him "Klansto Barakus intian Undigestium!", taunted the EHF. Not knowing Endris had just told Albrecht he wasn't worth digesting, the second gold sash began to get edgy.
"Look! The rumors of her return are true! I guess it's pork for the admiral tonight!", Albrecht affirmed with a sneer. The Tellarite figure facing them reached provocatively to her side, stroking the leather of her revealing harness. EHF Gakor pulled a shinny red object from her side, but the motion appeared to be hostile from Gary's vantage.
Before the interrogator could react, Trabuco discharged his disruptor into the Butcher's chest. Albrecht pulled his hair, agonized by his perception of Gakor's death screams. The cruel weapon slowly dissolved all traces of Endris's former existence. Not as much as a smear remained on the deck! Even the apple she wanted to munch shared her execution...
Puzzled for a second, Albrecht reasoned he was the next target. Fearing he would be the next one assassinated, the ACIO used the small metallic device in his sash to call for an emergency beam out to a random destination just as Gary Trabuco turned a hard stare at him. He justified this by the dire circumstances he was in, although perhaps he was just shaken up by the Colonel's death. The ACIO survived the attack without injury, but was wounded more than he would admit by Gakor's loss.
Hiding in an air shaft nearby, Gakor watched her former lover beam away, and Gary Trabuco twitch the disrupter towards his own skull. At the last minute, a devious smile spread on the Lieutenant's face, and he put the weapon away. Obviously, his plans had changed. Gakor listened to him order the computer to attempt tracing Albrecht's transport, but the log file had been wiped clean by the security protocols.
Five minutes earlier, Cat had watched with some interest as Angela placed the cube down in the corridor to Ten-Forward. It was too small to be a bomb - the tricorder could not find any explosives. That intrigued Cat, she watched as Angela left and watched the cube. Watching an Endris appear from "nowhere" and not register on the tricorder, Cat soon realised she was looking at a holographic image. 'What's the Pig's plan now?' Cat wondered.
Watching the events unfold had still left her confused, since she remained some distance from the actual events. From a few corridors away, Cat used the tricorder's sensors, and was able to hear what was being said. But she did not actually witness these happenings with her eyes. As discrete as possible, the Caitian moved back into a doorway as Angela moved past on some errand for Endris.
Gakor was now presumed dead, and security was bound to relax. Without waiting to see what trouble Trabuco would next spawn, the Colonel headed towards transportation away from this mess.
Meanwhile, Cat left out an exasperated feline curse. The blip on her tricorder used to track the engineer had disappeared! In the amount of time she used to observe the unfolding drama, the Deltan must have reached an area blind to sensors.
While she was wondering how to find the Colonel, she heard a muffled noise. Who else would be hiding near here? *It must be that illusionist Swine who just faked her death*, Cat reasoned. It was simple to retune the tricorder to follow the being's motion. After this, the doctor crept through conduits and maintenance hatches, sure to maintain enough distance so the Bacon Lady didn't know she picked up a tail!
***Aft Torpedo Bay***
Angela Dana was working on a probe casing. The thermoplast sprayer was dispersing a thin coating of stealth reflective material. She also adjusted the trajectory management system to avoid the asteroids in this region of space. Minutes before, the General reached a decision to launch a communication probe containing the story of Admiral Qwon's treachery. It was to be equipped with evasive technology so it could reach the ears of Imperial Fleet Command. Although this seemed a bit out of character for the CO, the Deltan engineer knew Price was very through without fault.
Two distinct events distracted Dana from her task. 3 meters back of her, a Titanium grill clanked noisily to the ground. At the same time, a thin whine solidified into the form of Matthew Albrecht. Angela smiled at his arrival, then turned to examine the source of the bang.
"Endris! I just saw you killed!", exclaimed Albrecht with a strange combination of relief and dismay. "I don't know what to do with you!", he said, simultaniously considering shooting her and turning candy-apple red. The Deltan ogled Matthew with intense jealousy. Then she pointed her mistress towards the Tricorder jamming the ease dropping devices.
"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!", snorted the Tellarite with humorous oinking. "Besides, you are the only people who know of my continuing existence."
"Not quite Gakor, did you forget about me?" Cat called out as she came around a corner. Both Matthew and Endris were ready to fight, but both relaxed when they recognised Cat. Matthew reholstered his disruptor to Cat's relief. Things were quickly becoming chaotic. One might suspect a powerful entity like Q was manipulating events.
Gakor dismissed that thought. The existence of Q had never been authenticated to her satisfaction. However, the miraculous repairs of the vessel left a margin of doubt.
Duty fought with Matthew's confused feelings over this Tellarite bitch. He ought to turn her in. But since everyone thought Gakor had been assassinated with the disruptor blast, no one would know if the ACIO let her escape. But there must be no chance the keen little psychopath could be discovered, or he would face hours in the agony booth.
Albrecht recalled once reading a security report where an ambassador fled a hostile situation by hiding inside a probe. And the systems were ready to launch.
As Albrecht was checking over the probe's systems, Cat moved over and looked at the shoulder wound, she fixed it up and sealed it. There was enough air and fluids to complete the journey back to Tellar. "Colonel, while we are busy, I want you to reseal this deal we have made."
"What deal?"
"My safe haven on Tellar" replied Cat. "I'll get straight to the point, I want to be sure this is genuine and I want to see your thumb on the PADD when it gets entered. Before you say anything I DON'T trust you. So if you would?" and Cat passed over the PADD to Endris.
"Well, since I'm dead, Kitty, I guess I'll just have to revise my will!", Gakor smiled in an attempt to be humorous.
Endris gave Cat a half sad look, then passed the PADD back to the Caitian as if playing a game of "hot potato". "Satisfied?" asked the Tellarite as the Caitian checked the agreement.
Cat's only reply was a low purr.
Endris had a decent meal and Albrecht and Dana soon entombed the Tellarite in the communication device with Cat watching farther back. At the last minute, Angela decided there was enough room in the makeshift sarcophagus to include the jamming device. It might help the probe escape detection. "Chef's luck!", Albrecht wished sincerely as he entered the codes to launch the life pod. Per standing orders, he next informed the General of the probe's emanate departure.
*** Space, Argonii Asteroid Belt ***
A probe black as the void of space itself cuddled between the path of the Argonii rocks. Rigged to escape this area, stealth algorithms disguised the thin tube's passing as the wake of numerous pursuit ships. But Commander Lore noticed small vibrations in the subspace continuum. They shifted position rapidly, so it was likely to be anion storm.
Lore was not in the mood to take chances, however. After being surprised by honey on the Star Base, and then ambushed on the barely functioning Akira, he would leave no stone unturned. Before he could order the destruction of the object, the fluctuations disappeared.
One of millions of tiny planetoids had struck the casket, and it tumbled off into deep space like Darth Vader's tie fighter at the end of Star Wars. Pausing to orient herself, the Colonel felt the sides of the probe's casing. She was still embalmed. But she had plenty of time alone to dream!
Frustrated, Endris slammed the gyrostat, and smiled when the nauseating wobbling stopped. The tiny projectile stabilized on a course for Tellar! Laughing at the thought of her escape, Gakor went to sleep to conserve her resources. *I'll be back*, she thought....
By: "Lt. jg Boudreau"
When she first met him, it seemed to Mara that this adolescent with an attitude would hardly be able to help them. Orders were orders though and she didn't have time to be disobedient. She showed Q to the structural integrity field controls and let him have his fun. 'If he messes anything up, at least I won't be to blame.' She thought. 'Besides, I have a warp core to fix.'
Not long after, the warp core was up and running again. Mara was pretty proud of her work on that one. And if anyone else tried to take the credit for that she would scream. At the same time, the hull breach was pretty much repaired. Mara was impressed that the few loyal engineers left on the ISS Galaxy had managed to pull the job off. Perhaps the secret to running a good department was only accepting the most 'honest' crew. She'd have to look into trying to get more loyal officers.
With the breach repaired, and the Galaxy back at warp, Mara turned her focus to the shields. As she examined the readings, she saw that the damage to the shields themselves wasn't so bad. If she could find the power, the shields would be almost back to normal.
"Oh Lieutenant!" Q hollered from where he was working. "I'm done with this now."
Mara sighed. 'Great! More to fix!' She saw Commander Thomas standing by Q and nodded to him. She went over to the console and looked at the readings. The structural integrity field had been strengthed to levels she had never imagined possible on the Galaxy.
"What in the world did you do?? It would take me weeks to figure out these algorithms..." Mara looked at the reading in wonder.
Q giggled. "My dear girl, it's not a matter of weeks or months. With years of even my tutelege you would never understand this."
Mara glowered at Q. Sensing that she wouldn't stand the boy for long, Commander Thomas stepped in. "It's time for us to get back to the bridge. How are the shields?"
She looked back where a crew was working on them.
"Pretty good if I do say so myself. I'll have them ship-shape in no time!"
Mara glared one last time at Q and returned to her work. By the time the Commander and Q had reached the bridge, Mara had gotten the shields up to 87%.
Mara stood back and sighed. "Will someone get me some hot chocolate?" she bellowed. A young ensign ran to the nearest replicator and came back with a steaming cup of hot chocolate. Mara smiled and accepted the drink before sulking again. "Next time include marshmellows will you?"
"Yes sir," the ensign replied and escaped before being subject to more of Mara's mood swings.
As she stood drinking her hot chocolate and observing the work in engineering, a sound came from the shield panel. 'Now what?' Mara wondered. "Will someone get that??"
"Sir," Ensign de la Salle spoke up. "Someone's trying to bring the shields down."
"What?" Mara shoved her drink into de la Salle's hands and stepped up to the panel. "Not after I just fixed them they won't!" Her hands flew over the panel, interrupting the program designed to drop the shields. It was sloppy programming and fairly easy to undo. Whoever had made the program should have paid better attention in their programming classes at the Academy... assuming they were Starfleet of course.
The warning stopped and the console went back to normal. Mara took her drink back from Ensign de la Salle and walked towards the office. "Someone tell security to find out who's tried to mess with my shields... I'm going to take a break. Oh and keep working on those shields, you never know when we'll need them."
Amelie Aka:
By: Amanda Wilson
****Bridge ISS Galaxy****
Well that was it. Leslie had shut down her weapons job. She was now in Starfleet, holding the rank of ensign. That didn't bother her much. She sat on the bridge of the Galaxy, watching as Captain Price tried to get out of a sticky situation. But as she watched, she knew it wasn't Captain Price, something about the man in the command chair, was not Price. Something was wrong, but she would keep that to herself for now.
Captain Price was still talking to the Orion on the screen. She kept her features a stone, making sure no one could read her, no one.
She leaned back further in the chair, watching the scence before her unfold. In a way she felt sorry for everyone on the ship, soon they would all be dead. She had ran a sensor scan, the star would go nova.
Leslie didn't have a fear of dying, she would face it bravely, and to that end. But now wasn't the time to die. She would survive, as she always did. She continued to watch, somewhat amused...
"Erasing Debts: Part 1"
ISS Galaxy
Lt. Commander Deiran Casey
"The Nightmare Ends"
by Lt. Alan Hewson
"You must use a different dictionary than I do, if that is your definition of help."
ICQ# 661637
Warp Engines and Gaping Holes
By: Lt. jg Mara Boudreau
Lt. jg Mara Boudreau
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
ISS Galaxy
by Shadow Wing Main AI Computer
Inserting virus code into warp drive control program...
Setting release date for four months time.....
- incesant playing of Terran song 'Daisy'
- corrections to nanite program
- leave 'Daisy' in memory
Lt jg K'Eytyanna Samara, USS Galaxy, Engineer
"Warships disappearing"
by K'Eytyanna Samara, Freedom Fighter
Lt jg K'Eytyanna Samara, USS Galaxy, Engineer
"Pursued"
by Captain Robert Edward Lee Price
" Now what? " Alled asked miserably. He knew these two humans were going to be trouble the minute he saw them. But could he use what little white matter he had in his brain to turn and walk the other way? No - Alled attracted trouble like a magnet attracted iron filings.
by Lt. Ronnie Morris
2nd Chief Scientist, ISS Galaxy
Lt. R'rlonnie Morris [charles@sykes.com]
2nd Chief Scientist, ISS Galaxy
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
By Lt. Pat Burns with excerpts from "Departing Insects" and "Pursued" both by Captain Price
Written by (the large) Intendent Kahn
Empok Nor
"We Need a Smaller Ship"
by Matthew Albrecht
rank and position indeterminate
"Not Right Now."
by Lt. Greer Erikson
Chief Science Officer, ISS Galaxy
"The hunt is over"
by (Commander) Joerg Sterner
Operations-I.S.S. Galaxy
An Interesting Discovery
By Lt. Cmdr. Jack Lawson
Partially reviewed by Commander Thomas
ISS Galaxy
"Understatement"
by Commander Thomas
A.K.A Lt. (jg) Christopher Thomas - USS Galaxy
"Leaving Starbase 357"
by K'Eytyanna Samara, Freedom Fighter
Lt jg K'Eytyanna Samara, USS Galaxy, Engineer
by Lt. Pat Burns
***** Trying to sort out the mess *****
By Lt. (JG) Paran Chanor
ISS Galaxy
This was too much for Harken. Not only had they lost the sabotage party to their enemy, but now others were pursuing their prey out of the station. An entire fleet of Empire warships had suddenly disappeared and re-appeared off the Shadowfire's sensors while an unknown attack cruiser had simultaneously materialized and appeared to be escorting the starship, keeping fire from the Galaxy's wounded side. To top things off, the Federation cruiser was being attacked and pursued by one of its own!
"That wounded duck"
by Captain Robert Edward Lee Price
"Songs in Space Combat"
by K'Eytyanna Samara, Freedom Fighter
Lt jg K'Eytyanna Samara, USS Galaxy, Engineer
" We're being hailed sir. " The shock on Lt. St. John's face was apparent as he attracted the captain's attention.
by Lt(jg) Hunter McKenzie AKA “The Supplier”
EX-ASST Tactical Officer
ISS Galaxy
Composed by Kornan Rios
Death To The Traitor
By Lt. Cmdr. Jack Lawson
ISS Galaxy
"Oh, by the way...."
by Captain Robert Edward Lee Price
"Erasing Debts, Part 2"
ISS Galaxy
Lt. Commander Deiran Casey & Commander Joerg Sterner
"Silence of the Hams"
by Colonel "Hoglips" Endris Gakor
with Matthew Albrecht and Doctor Cat
reviewed by Grixble and Price
Arrogant little...
By: Lt. jg Mara Boudreau
Lt. jg Mara Boudreau
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
ISS Galaxy
"Starfleet"
By Leslie Wilson
Political Officer,ISS Galaxy