Chapter One
Captain's Log,
stardate 57542.5.
Destined to Starfleet
Intelligence report archive
We have finally come
back aboard the newly refitted Valiant. There have been numerous new
test-technologies added to the ship and I'm eager to get to testing some of
them.
We have just picked up
our Civilian conn officer, Sylvia Burnel from starbase 666 where she was supposed
to be having her leave. We've just found out that she has been doing much more
things over the past few days than we'd thought she had. Rear-Admiral
Patrickson, who was with miss Burnel on her "mission", is currently
aboard the USS-Farlance, trying to catch up with a
small ship known as the Arrow upon which Agatha Burnel, Sylvia's sister who had
disappeared, is escaping. Unfortunately, at our last conference, Patrickson
seemed to have lost her. He has given us all a small patrolling mission in the Sector
while we wait for our new mission and nothing very interesting has been
happening, which is pretty good, considering everything the crew has been
through in the past week.
End Log…
* * *
The mess hall of the
USS-Valiant was full today. Since there was not much to do aboard the
ship, most of the crew was having a drink with their colleagues, trying to
lighten their spirits after the battles they had faced.
Yasmin Reeves walked
towards the table where Sylvia Burnel was waiting for her, she was holding two
glasses of blue Xiiian beer. She sat down and let out
a sigh before drinking a gulp from her glass. Sylvia just ran her finger along
the rim of the glass, lost in thought…
"Are you
okay?" Yasmin asked with a raised eyebrow as she noticed Sylvia's reverie.
Sylvia seemed to wake
up; she blinked a few times and said: "Uh…Yeah…I'm fine…"
"You're still
thinking about your sister, right?" Yasmin said.
Sylvia nodded:
"I'm just trying to understand why she did all the things she did on that
planet."
"Well…You said
that she stole the 'Daqium'…Isn't that an
answer?" Yasmin said.
Sylvia sighed: "I
don't know anymore…What I know if I don't even know my own sister?"
Yasmin frowned:
"Well…It's past…There's nothing you can do about it now. Just relax…"
Sylvia nodded:
"You're right." She swallowed some of her Xiiian
beer. "So…Could you start a new conversation, please? I've never been good
at starting new conversations…"
Yasmin smiled:
"Sure…How about this: Where did you grow up?"
"On a trading
ship…My parents were traders…That's where I learned to pilot with my…my
sister." She sighed.
Yasmin quickly
continued: "And was it easy for you? Didn't it bother you not to see any
new people now and then?"
"No…I didn't need
friends, I had my…sister…" Sylvia sighed again, this time more deeply.
Yasmin tried to quickly
get as far away from the subject of Sylvia's sister as possible: "Uh…I
grew up in
Sylvia's eyebrows rose
in interest: "Really? I used to love reading about
Yasmin smiled: "Yeah…It
was a fun place to live, especially with both my parents working in the largest
museum on ancient
"Was it by reading
hieroglyphs that you became a cryptologist?" Sylvia asked with a smile.
"Believe it or
not…Yes." Yasmin said. "I entered an archaeologist school at fourteen
and I began learning about
Sylvia nodded,
listening with interest.
"May I join
you?" A voice said.
The two women turned
and saw Jennifer Mantion standing there.
"Sure!"
Yasmin pointed to an empty seat near the table. "Please sit down."
"Thanks." Mantion
pulled the chair towards the table and sat down. "There are many people
today in the hall. So, logically, there isn't much room..."
Yasmin nodded:
"It's good for the crew to relax, the situation at Gyltian
was pretty darned stressing."
"Yes." Mantion
said flatly.
Yasmin was always a bit
disturbed by Mantion, she was so cold and personality-less. It was almost as if
you were talking to a Vulcan, Yasmin had almost never seen her smile.
"We were talking about
our childhood." Yasmin said, trying to bring the conversation back to life
again. Sylvia obviously wasn't going to do that, she had gone back to rubbing
her metallic fingers along the rim of her glass.
"I see."
Mantion said.
"Uh…Where did you
grow up?" Yasmin asked.
"My parents were
Starfleet officers. I was usually on a starship, a starbase or even sometimes a
shuttle." Mantion gave a small smile. "I really didn't have time to
make friends; I considered the computer as my best friend."
Yasmin was inwardly
dancing her victory; she had managed to make Mantion smile and say more than
two words!!! It was a date to note in her calendar.
Suddenly, she noticed
that the noise in the mess hall had lowered to the level of near-silence and
that everyone was staring out the large windows. She turned to follow
everyone's gazes and saw what they were looking at.
"Wow." Sylvia
said. "That's one heck of an ion storm."
"An ion
storm…" Yasmin repeated, staring in amazement at
the enormous green cloud streaked with white lightning bolts.
Suddenly, the yellow
alert siren sounded.
"This is
Captain Kline to all senior bridge officers, report immediately to deck one."
The captain's voice said over the inter com.
Mantion stood up
quickly, so did Sylvia.
"That's for
us." She said.
"I'm not part of
the senior bridge officers, right?" Yasmin said with a sigh.
Sylvia hesitated:
"No…But I guess that the captain won't mind if you come along." She
smiled. "Let's go, lieutenant."
* * *
The doors of the
turbolift opened and the three women stepped out, Mantion took her seat at the
tactical station at the front of the bridge, Burnel went to the conn and Reeves
took her usual seat at the back of the bridge at the science station where no
crewman ever was.
"Welcome to the
bridge." Kline said. "Okay, mister Eskina. Give me a full scan of the
phenomena."
"Aye,
sir." Gregory Eskina, seated at Ops nodded and began running a scan
on the ion storm.
"Miss Burnel, keep
us a safe distance away from the storm. I don’t want anything...unfortunate to
happen."
She nodded:
"Understood…"
Lieutenant Commander
Janna Sutter came out of the turbolift next; she was tying her hair up in her
usual ponytail and was yawning simultaneously.
"Commander
Sutter!" Kline smiled at her as she dropped heavily into her chair. "Stayed
up to late?"
"I shouldn't have
taken that extra shift." She said, suppressing another yawn.
Eskina suddenly
reported: "Sir, I've scanned the ion storm. There's nothing of
interest."
Kline sighed:
"Just another ion storm…I was hoping for something a little more
exciting."
"You mean you
haven't had enough action for one month already, sir?" Sutter asked with
an amused smile.
"Hmmm…" He
frowned. "I thought you said you were getting strange readings,
Eskina."
"I was…"
Eskina said. "But they're gone now."
Kline folded his arms across
his chest: "Strange…"
Suddenly, Mantion's
console began beeping, she said: "Sir! We're receiving a distress call
from a ship on the other side of the ion storm!"
"What kind of
ship?"
"It's impossible
to tell. The storm is giving out too much interference." She said. "But
the distress calls resembles a Starfleet call."
"All right,"
Kline nodded and dropped into his command chair. "Miss Burnel, set a
course to intercept the ship, maximum speed."
"Aye, captain…"
She said, her fingers danced over the console and the Valiant
jumped to warp. "We shall intercept them in a few seconds."
A few seconds later, the ship
appeared on the viewscreen, badly scarred from weapons fire and also from ion
energy.
"Magnify." Kline ordered
to get a clearer image of the ship.
The viewscreen magnified, it was a Defiant-class
vessel.
"Can we identify the
ship?" He asked.
"No, sir…The identification
codes are unknown to our databanks." Mantion said.
"I suggest we tow them away
from the ion storm," Eskina said. "…just in case it's starts
moving."
"Agreed," Kline nodded.
"Prepare a tractor be…"
There was a blinding flash of light
on the viewscreen that made everyone on the bridge turn their eyes in another
direction. When the light had returned to a normal level, the crew stared at
the viewscreen.
"Two new ships have just
appeared, sir." Mantion reported. "Unknown configuration…"
"Their weapons are armed,"
Eskina reported. "Ready for battle…"
Mantion suddenly reported:
"Sir, the Defiant-class vessel is hailing us, audio only."
"On speakers…" He ordered.
A female voice spoke: "Please!
To anyone in range! We are under attack by imperial warships and require
immediate assistance! I repeat…"
Kline pondered for a few seconds,
and then said: "Red alert…"
"Are
you sure, sir?" Sutter asked. "After all, we don't know the real
story behind this."
Kline nodded: "That's a Defiant-class
ship…So I assume it's a Federation ship. We must protect ourselves from
whatever threat comes and help our comrades in distress."
Sutter nodded slowly:
"Uh…Okay."
The Valiant's shields powered
up and the weapons were armed.
"Prepare to fire on the port
ship on my mark." Kline said. "Go to full impulse."
The Valiant advanced
towards the two larger ships, positioning itself between them and the smaller Defiant-class
vessel. And then, a barrage of phasers and torpedoes erupted from the banks and
bays of the Valiant. Slamming into the shields of the port starship and
disabling them easily. A stray torpedo suddenly ripped through the
now-unprotected hull of the starship and the ship burst in a fiery explosion.
"What?!"
Kline stood up from his chair. "I thought I told you to disable
them!"
Mantion shrugged: "I tried to,
sir…The shields of that ship were so pathetic that destruction was
inevitable."
Kline took a deep breath.
"Sir!"
Burnel suddenly said. "The second ship is on a collision course!"
"What?!"
"Confirmed," Mantion said
quickly.
"I'm moving us out of the
way…" Burnel said.
But it was too late; the larger ship
was almost upon the Valiant.
Kline was forced to take his
decision: "Fire all weapons!"
Mantion fired.
The second ship was destroyed as
easily as the first.
Everyone on the bridge let out a
collective sigh of relief.
"Right…Nice job…I think." Kline
frowned. "Okay, now hail the Defiant-class ship."
"It seems they have restored
video capabilities." Mantion said. "I am putting them on
screen."
The viewscreen blinked and was
replaced by a face.
By the face of
Janna Sutter…
Everyone stared at the face on the
screen…
"I am Captain Janna Sutter
of the Valiant." The woman said on the screen. "Thanks for the
hel…" Her eyes came upon the other Janna
Sutter. "What the hell?"
"I think we have your
excitement staring us in the face, captain." Eskina said.
"I agree…" Kline nodded.
* * *
"I've heard about this
story…I never believed in it…"
"What story?" Kline asked.
'Captain' Janna Sutter was still
staring at 'Lieutenant Commander' Janna Sutter as she said: "Some of my
friends in the resistance tell stories about how they met people from other
universes…I guess this explains everything…"
Kline suddenly remembered something,
a report from back when he was doing desk-work in the Starfleet Intelligence
H.Q. Reports from the
"You're a captain of the
resistance." Kline said. "…the…Terran
resistance, right?"
The mirror Sutter nodded: "That's
right. The Valiant is based upon the same design as the Defiant that
one of your friends fixed for us some time back." She was talking
about her own ship.
"Your Valiant seems to
be in pretty bad shape." He said.
"Yeah…" She smiled
grimly. "She took quite a beating from those destroyers…"
Suddenly, Kline heard a siren sound.
But it wasn't a siren from his own ship; it was coming from the mirror Valiant's
bridge on the viewscreen.
"What's wrong, captain?"
He asked the mirror Sutter.
"Our warp core was hit…"
She said. "I don't think she's going to withstand the stress that's
working on it…"
Mantion said: "The mirror Valiant's
warp core is going critical; I expect a rupture within the next few
minutes."
Kline nodded: "Captain!
We're going to get you out of there."
Mirror Sutter shrugged: "If
you want…"
Kline frowned and said: "Bridge
to transporter room, beam the crew of the other ship on board
immediately." He turned to Burnel. "I want you to get us out of here
the second the whole crew of the mirror Valiant gets on board."
She nodded.
* * *
Lieutenant Jellico entered the
transporter room with two fellow security officers, commander Mantion had sent
them in to greet the "guests" from the other ship. He gave a quick
nod to Robinson, the transporter chief, and she energized.
The crew of the other ship began
beaming in quickly in waves of seven. Jellico didn't know why, but he thought
he recognized some of these people. Suddenly, he realized something was wrong
when he saw a man come down from the transporter pad who looked exactly like
him, this man had a scar running down his right cheek and had one or two teeth
missing, but he definitely looked exactly like Jellico.
I have the strange feeling that this
is going to be a long day…Jellico thought with a sigh.
* * *
"The whole crew of the other
ship has been beamed on board, captain." Chief Robinson's voice
reported over the commlink.
The Valiant had just jumped
to warp away from the mirror Valiant and the storm. Kline said:
"Good work, chief. Bridge out."
Suddenly, there was a flash of light
on the viewscreen, the mirror Valiant had just exploded…
Eskina let out a sigh: "Just in
time…"
Sutter turned to the captain:
"Uh…Sir, I'd like to know what's going on."
"You'll see…Summon the senior
officers of both crews in the observation lounge…We need to have a talk…"