The Sum of Its Parts: The Hunt For Jake Grey Part Five

As the Archangel floats off, using the damged impulse engines to crawl to the nearest starbase, nearly a week away, the Archangel comes across a war zone. Or at least it looked like it at first. The debris, and the flahes of light. But it's actually a large number of shuttlecrafts using demolition torpedoes to dientegrate the debris of Starfleet ships hovering over the blue-green orb below. One of the shuttles swings over to the Archangel.

"Hey Jenkins. Check it out. XDCA markings on that Defiant-class over there." The yellow shirted pilot stated to his friend ion the next seat, a blue shirted demolitions expert. "Yeah it's an XDCA ship allright. I thought all XDCA ships in this universe were taken out by Grey and his forces." "Yeah, I thought so too. Think it could be a trap?" "Don't know. Get on the line with Starbase 16. I think they have an XDCA ship registry."

Aboard the Archangel the crew is still breathing a collective sigh of relief. Carrie's face appears on the viewscreen. "Hate to spoil the celebration dudes, but take a look outside." She activates the viewscreen. Her face disappears, and out side is a debris field even larger than the field of rocks they had to fly through at Hoth. "By the Gods." Greymoran decalres. Keith and Rita look at the battle field. "My god." Rita says. "Did Grey do that?" Greymoran nods. "Most likely. Carrie, do you register any life signs?" "Fraid not, but the sensros are in bad shape. Readings are inconclusive." Greymoran sighs. "OK. Is the comm system working?" Carrie sighs. "Fraid not again. The external components are out of whack. Someone's gonna have to go EVA to re-align it." Jackson stands up holding a jar. "I've got a whole jar of intstant Redshirts here. We can send a few of them to do it if it's too dangerous." Greymoran spins around, a look of anger flashing across his face. "No! I do not like the idea of disposable soldiers. Unless you can find a way to make those "redshirts" long standing productive mebers of this crew that jar is stay is to stay closed. Do I make myself clear?" Jackson stands there in shocked silence. "But, on the Spidership-" "This is not the Spidership, Jackson. And we are not the LICC. In the XDCA we want our people to live good long lives. We've always found the Redshirt concept nothing less than offensive. Now put that damned jar away. I'll suit up and realign the thing myself. It's been months since I've seen natural light, and I'll take it where I can get it, even if it's just from the stars." He storms into the turbolift. Jackson looks around dumbfounded, noticng that the crew is staring at him. "What the hell was that all about?" Keith and Rita stand up from where they were sitting on the floor. "Um, Reet? How about we go down to sickbay? I think we have an EMH on board, don't we Carrie?" "Well, no, but if you get her into of the beds I think I might be able to manipulate one of the android bodies well enough to operate some of the equipment. Medicine isn't my field of expertise, but I know how to work a bone mender." Keith and Rita nod then get into the second turbolift on the other side of the bridge. Hudzen looks at Jackson. "I apologize for his actions sir, but he is correct. The XDCA has always been violently opposed the usage of disposable soldiers. That is the reason we never directly asked the LICC to join us. We doubted they would be able to hold to XDCA charter. However, I do belive the Captain's reaction was uncalled for." Jackson walks over and puts his hand on Hudzen's shoulder. "It's OK Hudzen."

Of course, In the LICC, redshirts are considered more along the line of tools and cannon fodder...a bit of comic relief here and there.
Then again, there's the occasional redshirt who has become a regular... the Female Redshirt, and Scott Free.

Carrie: Well, Greymoran did overreact Jackson buddy, but XDCA charter prohibits that kind of cannon fodder. We're not even allowed to use non-sentient robots for that. So I think it would be best if you left that jar closed like he said. Greymoran still feels guilty about that Fire Elemental about ten years ago.

Meanwhile, somewhere out in space, a lone Vor'cha class Klingon battle cruiser hovers at the edge of a black hole, fring engines and thrusters at maximum to keep from being sucked in, but also protected. Hidden from the enemy that nearly destroyed them. The powerbots outside, gripped to the hull by powerful magnets, paint a new name on the ship. Revanche. Her captain stares out the viewscreen at the precipice of the black hole. "Commander Durgin, how long until the Inertial Nullifer is in place?" The tall thin, bald man wearing the blue uniform that denotes his specialized field of Security lumbers over, his left leg dragging behind him in a weak limp. "Well, sir, you know the difficulty of employing EU tech on ships such as these. It could be hours. You remember the weeks we spent trying to get the Gyro Destabilizers to work?" Captain Redding sighs, running his hands through his graying hair, rubbing his eyes. "Christ, this is gonna be tough. Any word yet on the missing ship from the Station 47 assault?" Durgin turns around to look at the squatty creature. The dwarven man taps a few buttons on his console, and in a deceptively pleasent voice says, "Yessir. We've identified it as the Archangel. It was going to be Commander De'Arnise's first command sir. She disappaered at the start of the assault. Maxine said that Carrie transferred herself to the ship before it's EMH was installed." A face appears on the viewscreen. "I never liked her." The face is that of the ship's computer, Maxine. The only "survivor" of Grey's assault on Station 47. Durgin rolls his eyes. "Did you ever consider that had you and her not been bickering that people might have had a chance to evacuate?" Maxine's face turns into a snarling monster. The monster still has her southern drawl. "That's not cool Captain!" Redding raises his hands in defeat. "Allright! Stop it! Both of you! We'll get nowhere if we keep fighting each other. We are the last XDCA agents still alive. We need to find the Archangel and Carrie. We'll need all the help we can get if we're gonna re-build the XDCA. Now, as soon as we're out we'll hook up to the nearest active XDS and download all dimensional incursion in the past month. With any luck we'll find the Archangel, and we'll have another ship to help us in the fight. For now, let's get that new tech installed. We'll need to have some kind of edge." Oakensheild, the dwarven science officer triwls his thin hip length beard in his chubby fingers. "Sir, what if the Archangel and Carrie are under Grey's control?" Redding sighs, and sits back in his command chair. "Then, we'll have to take her down." Durgin shakes his head. "I worked with Carrie aboard the Potemkin sir. She's too strong willed to let Grey dominate her program." Maxine's voice comes over the brdige intercom. "True. She probably joined him willingly." Redding raises his hand. "Shut up Maxine or I'll have Oakensheild delete your program."

Dupree looks at the viewscreen with a mix of emotions
You know, I bet Greymoran might need some help
Dupree takes a single redshirt seed from the instant redshirt jar and goes to the airlock. There, he places the seed on the ground and pours a little water on it. A few seconds later, and a new redshirt is born. Both put on EVA suits and exit the ship and go towards Greymoran
Hi sir. Just thought you may need some help...and, I need to talk to you.
Greymoran: What is it son? And why do you have a redshirt in that suit?
Jackson: Well, sir, as for the redshirt, I thought I would show you how useful they can be. As for talking to you, I think I may be having a crisis of identity. The part of me that's the
"clone wanting his own identity" is happy to be aboard and exploring the various dimensions, but there's this other side.. The one that still thinks of itself as the original Tacoman. It wants a more stable lifestyle and a single universe to explore.
I want to get off this ship and explore this universe! I want to see the worlds of
the Federation! I want to get a standard runabout so I can go places. Maybe one with a small
portal generator and a dimentional communicator just in case I want to come back here.
I hope you can understand, both as a captain and my father

Greymorna sighs. "Get that redshirt back inside and someplace safe. Now! I've made it clear how I feel about disposable soldiers. It's morally and ethically wrong." With that a strong flare from the near by distracts the walking redshirt, who promptly steps of the ship, falling into the warp nacelle, burned alive in a microsecond. Greymoran is fumin with anger. "See? Think about it! That man could've led a long productive life. Become a member of this crew. Maybe even started a family. THAT is why I hate disposable soldiers. Men, and creatures created for the sole purpose of dying. It's just wrong. Get back inside Jackson, and just get rid of that jar! That is an order! I can fix this myself. I'm almost done."

The shuttle moves closer to the Archangel, but holds back just outside of their damaged sensor range. "I don't it's noticed us. Or else it's waiting for us to get closer. Any word from 16 yet?" "Yep. There was an Archangel in XDCA sercice. Retired from service 20 years ago. A Nove-class Dreadnoguht from Babylon 5." "So. You think it's a trap?" "Don't know. The damage seems too real to be faked. They've got someone EVA right now fixing something. And it IS headed towards a reapir dock. But then again, it could be one of Grey's ships, hoping to pass itself off as one of the good guys to get fixed." "That's a bit of a stretch Jenkins." "Well, regardless, I think we should inform the Gorn. There are no working Starfleet ships close enough to deal with this. I think we passed a Gorn battlecruiser on the way to the battle area." "Good idea."

Look sir, I know how you feel about Redshirts, but they've been cloned and raised to become cannon fodder. THAT IS THEIR LIFE AND FUNCTION! They're here for minor comedy relief and to fix stuff. Sure, a few of them in the LICC universe have been able to survive... the Female Redshirt, Scott Free, and Heliotrope come to mind, but for the rest of them, it's their job and destiny to die instantly.
Dupree sighs and glances around. The vastness of space on most sides causes him to feel mixed emotions
I sure would like to get out there and explore it myself.
Dupree climbs to the top of the ships, where he has an unobstructed view of the stars. He notices something and rushes back down to tell Greymoran
Sir, I think I just saw a shuttle... It's somewhat far away, and was departing when I saw it.

Ahz appeared on the outer hull, wearing a space suit.

This seems like a good place to field test my new ocular enhancer.

Ahz held out a small device. It hooked over the ear and a small rod extends and points towards the eye.

This can greatly increase the wearer's eyesight. It can be set to microscopic or telescopic view. Let me demonstrate.

Greymoran and Dupree then noticed that Ahz was wearing one of those devices. A small boom extended and pointed towards Ahz's eye. Ahz looked at the Archangel's hull.

There are microfractures all over the hull armor. They should be corrected as soon as possible.

Ahz turned and looked out into space.
Oh my! It would seem that Mr Dupree was right. There is a small shuttle out there. It just went into warp. I wonder who that could have been.

Greymoran sighs. "We can continue this discussion later jackson. Ahz, I suppose it's too much to hope that you could give me more details on that shuttle, like markings?" Greymoran leans down and adds the finishing touches on the communications array. He taps a button on the arm of his suit. "Carrie, the array is fixed send a call out to the reapir dock by Starbase 16. Tell them our situation, and tell them that we might be being followed." Carrie's voice comes back in over the suits intercomms. All three EVA crew members here Carrie say. "Done and done sir."

Starbase 16 Quartermaster: Greymoran? I thought you were dead!

Greymoran: Not the first time people have thought that. Anyway, we're about a week away.

Quartermaster: No, no, no. You need to get back out there to go after Grey! We'll send a Warp Tug to grab you and pull you in. I'll move you up on the priority list.

Greymoran waves his hands: No, no. I wouldn't feel right. You guys need to get your fleet back in order.

Quartermaster: No arguments Greymoran. We need the XDCA back in a bad wa-

The tranmission cuts off.

Carrie: God dammit! The external comm antenna collapsed again!

Greymoran pounds his chair arm in anger.

Greymoran: By Moradin's Hammer these breakdowns are becoming VERY monotnous.

Jake Grey paces about, waiting for his test ship to return. "What is taking them so long TorGal?" "They have entered a universe we sterilized sir. No XD satellites on-line there. Makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly where to send the message. We sent it on all bands, so they should receive it shortly." Jake Grey collapses, tired, into his throne. "I grow weary of waiting TorGal. I sahll go to be awake me if they come. Oh, and any word on the location of the Archangel?" "I shall check the satellite records. Hmm. One of the STUs. One we already attacked. I belive it was the one where we used the Shadow Death Cloud on Vulcan. Looks like our attempts to turn the other races against each other hasn't worked too well. The Cardassians have not launched an offensive as you predicted. Nor have the Romulans." Grey graons. "Disapointing. The Praetor told me they would use those upgraded cloaking shields to finish off the Klingons. He shall pay for lying to us. As soon as the Red Wizard has returned, we'll add the new dimensional traveller to our ship, than we go to Romulous. I suggest using that Nano-virus we picked up from WCU-9." TorGal nods. "I agree sir. They shall know what happens to those who betray you."

As soon as jackson, Ahz, and Greymoran are back inside the ship, Carrie's face appaears on a panel near the airlock. "Jackson, might I talk to you in private?"

Sure Carrie.
Dupree goes into an unused conference room
So Carrie, what's up?

Carrie: Jackson, I can't help but notice that there has been some tension between you and Greymoran. It seems to me that he alternates bewteen referring to you as his son, which is somewhat true, and treating you like a person he only met recently, which is also. This conflict is hard on him. And you. I can say for certain that people are basically playing tug-of-war with you. Some want you to be like Tacoman, and expectr you to be indentical, because you are a clone. But others believe that because you are a clone, you cannot possibly be anything like Tacoman. And it's affecting your performance. I overheard Keith and Rita when they told you all that about individuality. Not too long afterwards, your performance suffered. I seriously think you should consider seeing a therapist. There may be one at the repair dock. Most bases carry one after large scale battles. I think it would be good for you."

The Gorn battlecruiser hangs back, outside of what is assumed to be the damaged vessel's sensor range. The Gorn vessel hangs in space, while the shuttle pilots stand on the bridge. "What do you think sirs?" The Gorn captian slowly turns his large head to look at the pilot. "Isss mossst likely not a fake. Ssshipsss namesss do get reussed. Like Enterprissse. Damage is too sssevere too have been faked. But we will follow it to Ssstarbassse 16 just in cassse. Weaponsss! Power the Plasssma Torpedoesss! We may not have to ussse them, but it isss better to be sssafe than sssory as the humansss sssay.""

I suppose so Carrie. I wanted to get away and travel for much the same reason... to get my head together and think about my duality...

Carrie smiles. "Exactly! I think you should talk to Greymoran first though. Just let me talk to him first. Calm him down. He won't get in your way."

Greymoran sighs as Carrie explains the Jackson situation to him. "This is mostly my fault. I was too lenient as a parent. I never instilled my feelings on cloning and disposable people in him as a child. I don't think he ever truly understtod how horrible the whole concept truly is. Yes, the body can be cloned, but not the soul. Jackson needs to find his own identity, and if getting away for awhile is the best option..." Greymoran rubs his eyes. "Carrie, prepare a shuttle, with a dimensional locator, so he can get back to us whereever we may be. Make sure the replicator is up to specs. And tell him I said good luck." Carrie frowns. "Why can't you tell him yourself?" "I don't think he really wants to talk to me right now Carrie. Besides, that warp tug will be here in a few minutes and I want to be on the bridge to greet them."

Hudzen walks onto the bridge back in his old body.

Captain, the tug has arrived.

Dupree stands at the entrance to the shuttle, talking to Carrie and getting final instructions
...Don't worry Carrie, I'll be back. I just need to get a breath of fresh air, as it were. Who knows where I might go.. I hear Risa is nice any time of the year.
With that, Dupree enters the shuttle and departs. With him is a map of the galaxy he's in and his new interdimentional music collection.
Dupree to Archangel, I'll be back, don't know when though. Bye Rita, Keith, Carrie, father

"So long son." Greymoran says, somberly. Keith and Rita lock hands. "Bye buddy. Hope you can come back soon." Hudzen stands silent behind Greymoran. Ahz is below in his lab. The others aren't even sure if he's aware of the departure. The screen shows the shuttle leaving the hangar. The screen magnifiies to watch the shuttle fly away. The shuttle goes into warp. The crew of the Archangel stnads in silence as their friend flies away.

Rita holds a holodisk that Dupree handed to her before he left. She goes to her quarters and plays it.
Hi Rita. This is Jackson, and I have something to tell you. From the moment I met you, I've been crazy about you. I couldn't tell you when I was aboard because I was too polite to tell you. But now that I've left for a while, I thought you might have wanted to know. Goodbye for now

Ahz watched the shuttle launch from his lab. When the craft was out of sight, he got up and headed for the elevator. He got off on the hanger level.

Well Ryo-O, it seems that nothing much is happening. Time to go for a test flight.

The image of Ryo-O appeared next to him.

Ryo-O: "Good. I'll get the ship ready to go."

Both Ryo-O and Ahz disappeared. Ahz appeared inside the ship and looked around. He was standing on a wooden dais, with a large tree directly behind him. He looked up and saw the hanger walls around him. The floor was made of wood, and there were streams of water flowing around. There were also smaller trees and bushes scattered throughout room. There were no signs of controls anywhere.

A step down was a small island with an elaborate circle carved into it. Ahz stepped into the circle.

Open the outer doors and take us out slowly.

The doors to the hanger opened into outer space, and the giant ship slowly exited the hanger. Once free, the ship picked up considerable speed as she headed for open space.

Rita sits in shcok at the message jackson left behind. "I can't ••••••• belive this." She puts the disk in the waste reclamation system. "Sorry, Jakckson, but you're not my type." She pushes a button and the disk flies out into space. "Carrie, I hope you didn't see that." "Saw what?" Carrie's voice replies. "Good girl. I think it'd be better for everyone if we just pretended this didn't happen."

Rita walks on to the bridge, trying very hard not to look concerned. She fails.

Keith: Hey babe. What's wrong?

Rita: Nothing.

Keith: Menopause?

Rita slaps Keith: What did I tell you? Do NOT say that word when I'm in earshot. I don't even want to think about it.

She sighs.

Rita: No, it's not menopause. Don't worry. I still got a few good years left. We could have a child during that time. I just don't want to do it while Jake Grey is still out there.

Keith puts his hand on his wife's shoulder.

Keith: Who knows how long that could take though Reet. Carrie and Hudzen has been tracking him for over a year before they found Greymoran, and it was weeks before Greymoran found us. I know I sound selfish when I say something like that but-

Rita gently strokes Kieth's cheek smiling at him.

Rita: You're not selfish Keith. I'm just worried, that's all.

Keith: OK. Oh, by the way, how's your arm?

Rita sighs: Still hurts. Hopefully when we dock with that repair dock I can get this thing fixed and get back to that pilot's seat where I belong. Speaking of which-

Greymroan stands up.

Greymoran: We're there. Sorry, I couldn't help but hear your conversation. We're at the dock now. As soon as we're attached we'll send you to their sickbay.
Rita breathes aheavy sigh of relief.

Rita: Bout fuckin' time.

Meanwhile, Dupree is on his way to parts unknown
Let's see... where shall I go...Go to Earth and see Star Fleet... Go to Risa and see the sights...just so many choices...

While the repair robots work their magic on the Archangel's hull, Greymoran sips his tea in the station's lounge, watching the tired humans, Vulcans and Gorn skulk around, battered, bruised, yet still unwilling to give up. Greymoran walks over to a table of Starfleet officers in casual wear. "Mind if I join you gentlemen?" The only human at the table looks up. "Yeah, sure. You from the XDCA right?" Greymoran shrugs. "What's left of it. So, what happened after Grey's forces attacked? The reports I'm getting have been skecthy." The Vulcan at the table speaks up. "The Breen went back on the offensive, violating the Chintaka Accord. The Cardassians solidifed their broders, refusing to aid us. Many of them are still bitter over losing the war, and the Dominion's attempt to wipe them out. The Dominion took the position that aiding either side would be a violation." The human grinned and nodded. "Yeah, and the Tholians just HAD to have their little civil war. Leaving us and the Klignons vulnerable. Grey blew up Earth with a cloaked Death Star that he then rammed into the moon. Over 11 Billion lives love in the first ten minutes. Then Grey's fleet came out of nowhere and leveled several strategically important colonies and bases along Breen space. If it weren't for the Gorn we could've lost over a billion civilians." Greymoran lowers his head. "By Helm. How many ships did he have?" "Grey? No one's sure. He attacked mainly with ships from our reality. A lot of them turned out to be duplicates. On the outside they looked and even registered as ships, but there was nothin inside. No decks, no crews, nothing. Like a chocolate bunny." The Vulcan raised an eyebrow at that statement. "We figure that only 10% of the ships in the first wave were genuine, but they were piloted by some pretty smart people, because they racked up the kills. The hollow ships were pretty much used as cannon fodder and battering rams. The majority of early attacks hit extremely unimportant areas, thus lightly defended. We lost only 2% of the Starfleet there, but close to 50 Billions lives. Several planets were leveled. Made completely useless. NWS." "NWS?" Greymoran asked. "Not worth saving. Firestorms, plauges, etcetera. Anyway, at the time the subspace satellites were taken out so we had no idea that Grey was responsible. At the time we thought that the Star Wars emperor had gotten his hands on a portal generator again, like that incident about 20 years ago becuase of that Death Star. Then the Breen attack came of course. Then an unknown plauge was intorduced to the Klingon homeworld, which through them into chaos. That was when Grey launched his main attack. Thankfully once the element of surprise had worn off we were able to turn him back, but then the Tholian civil war broke out, which confused the hell out of everyone, and the war carried over into Klingon space. A few Klingon cruisers were caugfht in a crossfire, and that started a brief shooting war. And it's been downhill ever since." Greymoran nods. "So, how did you end up here?" "Some cult managed to hi-jack a starship from somewhere and wreaked havoc on Risa before we," he waved his hands to make sure that Greymoran knew that he meant everyone at the table, "came in and saved the day. Sadly we underestimated the cult's intelligence. They set off the auto-destruct and killed a large portion of our crew. We were able to crawl back here, and have been sitting here, at the same table, eating the same things, telling the same damned story for two and a half weeks. So, what happened to you?" Greymoran sighs. "OH boy, where do I start? The part where my brother went insane and tried to kill my son? Where my old friend began a campaign of terror that included the attacks you just mentioned? Crashing my ship on an ice planet? Nearly getting blown out of the satrs on more occassion that I can count on hand? Oh, and then there was the fact that a clone of my son that had been assigned to the Archangel left us, we have a crewmember who is the most crypotic SOB I've ever met, and my ship's pilot and science officers are part of a couple so sickeningly sweet it makes me want to vomit. And that's just this year." The Starfleet officers at the table are stunned into silence. All except the Vulcan who raises an eyebrow. "If this is the humand practice of 'comparing battle wounds' I find it to be highly illogical. Regardless of the number or severity of tragic incidents we have been witness too, what point can there possibly be-" The human at the table raises his hand. "OK, we get it. We're only trying to help each other out of this funk. It's what humans do." Greymoran stands up. "Well, gentleman, I will be returning to my ship. Ahz called me up. Said he wanted to show the crew something, and it wouldn't be good for me to be late. I just hope it's something interesting. Farewell."

Hudzen walks onto the bridge, once again in a different body, this time in Bender's, cigar and all

Oh come on Rita, I saw this stuff months ago. You humans are pretty pathetic at noticing this stuff. So, what does everybody think of my new look?

Rita and Keith look at Hudzen with smirks on their faces. Rita laughs. "I'd stick with the original body hudzen. It was intimidating, and tough, which is good considering your postion on this ship. Besides, I can't see anyone hearing you with that voice, and seeing that body, and taking you seriously when you tell them to lay down their arms." Keith smiles. "She's right. They'll laugh at you dude. Now c'mon. Ahz wants us to see this thing he's been working on."

As Dupree continues to travel to a destination unknown, he gets updated information on this universe through sensors and subspace radio information
...Earth, destroyed... much of the rest of the galaxy in chaos... Risa not inhabatible anymore...
If this is truly the chaos left behind when Jake Grey comes to town, Greymoran has a lot of work in front of him. I must help stop this manaic before he destroys again! I must go back to the Archangel and apologize to all those I've hurt! I must...The console starts beeping. Dupree goes to see what the problem is, and sees several large ships approaching him. Their weapons and shields are activated, and are about ready to fire
I think I'd better get out of here!
Dupree briefly drops out of warp as he turns the shuttle around and heads back towards the Archangel's position. The large ships use this opportunity to fire.
BOOM!consoles explode and systems go down
Computer, head towards the station the Archangel was going to, maximum warp! Shields up!
Jackson Dupree to the Archangel, I'm being fired upon by unknown ships! I'm headed... The ships fire again, causing the console in front of Dupree to explode, causing him to fly back into the wall, knocking him out. The shuttle, by some miracle, goes into warp at almost the last second

Proximity alerts suddenly go off all over the station. A huge ship seems to phase into existence right next to the station. The ship is over a kilometer in length and it appeared to be made of carved wood. The ship opened a channel to the station and a female voice came over the speakers. There was no video component.

Ryo-O: "Attention Federation Starbase. I am Ryo-O and you are under my protection for the time being. There is an incoming shuttle being pursued by several unknown vessels. I will protect you from those vessels."

At the same time, the Archangel also received a transmission. It was Ahz. There was a tree behind him, and stars were visible in the background. In the far corner, the starbase was visible.

Greetings, Archangel. Jackson Dupree is making his way back to the ship, and he is being pursued by several unidentified ships. They will be entering my firing range in 5 minutes. I would leave to intercept, but there is a cloaked fleet waiting three light-minutes from here. I don't want to leave the starbase unprotected.

Greymoran's face glazes over with panic. "Carrie, status!" "Bad news pal. The weapons are off line and the armor isn't fixed yet. The statiosn defneses have activated, and the few ships they have that work are taking defensive postions. They got a fighter squadron out, and the science vessels Bellephoron and Miranda are powering up what few weapons they got. And, wait. A ship is coming out of warp. It's, oh." Greymoran gets out of the captain's chair. "What is it?" Carrie smile.s "A Gorn Battlecruiser. It's moving into a defensive position."

Jake Grey smiles. "Excellent. The Breen are playing right into our hands. And those Roulan vessels we stole are working beautifully. No matter what they say the Romulan Empire will take the balme for the attack on that repair base." ToGal nods. "Agreed. It is too bad that shuttle carrying Greymoran's son got away." "That wasn't Greymoran's son my friend. Merely a clone. But no matter. His shuttle was damaged, and our sensors registered a life sign drop, so if he's not dead by now he will be soon. This is a glorious day. Soon we will destroy the Archangel and get that accursed wizard out of our hair for good." TorGal begins to say something, but then a light on a nearby panel distracts him. He goes over and pushes a few buttons. "Oh my." "What is it TorGal?" "Our cache in the debris of the Earth in XFU-2 has been ransacked. Most of our people were killed, and a wing of Star Wars TIE Defenders were stolen, along with the entire hand-held weapon containers." Grey lowers his head with an angry frown. "The St. Helens." TorGal nods. "I'm afraid so my lord." Grey screams into the air. "Dammit! Dammit to hell! That ship has been causing trouble for the past month. Raiding our bases, ambushing our scout vessels, and somehow going undetected by the Dimensional satellites! I want to find that ship! As soon as we're done here I want to find that ship!"

Well, I was hoping for a longer vacation. Drinking, gambling, oh well.

Back aboard the Revanche, the dwarf Oakensheild's eyes light up with glee. "Excellent! We've reestablished the link to the XDS network! Going through the back logs." The dwarf scans the lists of dimensional incursion recorded in the past 24 hours. One major one stands out. "Yes, STU-1. Minor distrubance occured isnide a debris field. Perhaps a ship trying to hide out there. Do you think it could be one of Grey's ships Captain?" Captain Redding sits in his captain's chair. "Don't know. If it is though we'll need to take it out fast. Anything else Oakensheild?" The dwarf turns back to his console. "Hmm." He scans it again. "Ah, another incursion. This one in XFU-2. Near what used to be Earth. The satellites show sign of an extensive battle. Lot's of starfighters involved." Redding swears under his breath. "Great. The lady and the tiger." He gets up and wlaks over to Oakensheild's console. "Allright, we'll go to XFU-2. It's possible there may have been other survivors of Grey's campaign. That may have been them involved in the fight. We have to check it out." He hits the button on his comunicator. "Mac, we're heading out. Power up the dimensional portal generator." The voice of the ship's cheif engineer comes back. "Aye cap'n. It should be workin 'gain. Gave er a wee bit of a jimmy, and wrapped 'er up. Hit it anytime cap'n." Durgin shakes his head. "I swear she ain't using real words." Redding swivels his chair to face his first officer. "Mac is one of the best engineers in the XDCA mister. You will keep further comments concerning her accent to yourself. That is NOT a request." Durgin's face clenches with anger. "Yes. Sir."

Ryo-O: "Ahz, those fighters are almost in range."

Ahz looked towards the stars and several windows opened up. A tactical display showed the incoming shuttle and fighters, the base, the cloaked fleet, and the defense fleet. One window showed a close-up of the shuttle, and one showed a close up of the fighters.

Disable them. I want one of those fighters to be sent to my lab. Starfleet and the Archangel can fight over the rest.

A pair of semi-circular tubes extended from the hull with a number of rods between them. A point of light appeared at the end of one of the rods. Then the point leapt off the rod and into space.

The energy shot traveled passed the shuttle, and detonated in the middle of the fighter formation, sending the fighters spinning out of control. A tractor beam snared the shuttle and brought it to a stop, and the fighters stopped on their own near the base. Another tractor beam snared a fighter. As Jackson's shuttle was maneuvered into the base's docking bay, the base received a communication.

Ryo-O: "There is a medical emergency aboard the shuttle. The patient's name is Jackson Dupree. Preliminary scans indicate..."

Carrie: Sir! Ahz's vessel has brought in jackson's shuttle it's being docked on the station they're rushing him to the med labs. They say his injuries are pretty severe, mostly to the face neck and chest areas. Those are the only details I can get.

Greymoran pounds the arm of his chair: Dammit! Carrie, I'm going over the station.

Carrie: No can do. The starbase has issued a lockdown. All non-combatant shipss are being moved to the center of the dock where they can be more easily defended. You can't transfer during the move. The bots are tractoring us into position now.

Greymoran put his head into his hands: By Helm. What would I tell my son? *a look of anger flashes across his face* Would he even care? Would the fact that clone is near death concern him?!

Keith gets out of his chair and walks over to Greymoran, putting a hand on his shoulder: Sir. There's nothing we can do from here. The best we can do is hope.

The sweat drenched face of the station commander appears on the Archangel's viewscreen. Greymoran gives him an XDCA salute. "Commander, who's attacking us." The commander wipes his brow. "Breen. A whole fleet. Including a pair of heavy carriers. We've got at least 4 squadrons of heavy fighters incoming. Now here comes the bad news." Under her breath Rita mutters. "And this is the good news?" "We've got a dozen Romulans Warbirds on attack vectors." Greymoran frowns. "Romulans? Why are they getting involved?" The commander shrugs. "I don't know. They might not be real Romulan ships. They could be fakes, but sensors indicate that we're not so lucky." Greymoran shakes his head. "Thank you commander. Our man Ahz is out there in that big floating tree. He'll defend the station with everything he has." The commander nods. "I hope it'll be enough. As soon as we've stood down from red alert we'll beam you over to med lab so you can check on your man. His shuttle got cut up pretty bad. By the time we brought it in the main cabin and the warp drive were the only things left. It's a miracle he's still alive."

Ryo-O, I want you to get a copy of the lead Romulan ship's computer core.

A window popped up and lines and lines of code quickly scrolled down the screen.

Ryo-O: "The Romulans are using a trinary language. It will take some time for me to decode."

Don't bother, I'll do that when we get back to the lab. Lets just focus on the task at hand. Target the lead ship and fire. Full power shot.

A number of the cylinders and rods extended from the hull. This time, a larger points of light appeared at the end of all the rods and merged into one large point, filling the cylinder. Then the entire sphere of energy leapt out of the cylinder towards the lead Warbird. When the two things met, the Warbird was instantly destroyed, and the shockwave caused severe damage to the other two. The fleet began to break up.

Ryo-O: "Attention Romulan fleet and Breen carriers. This station is under my protection. If you do not wish to be destroyed, you will withdraw."

A pair of Warbirds de-cloak right next to the station and begin firing. Several of the stations defenses are wiped out, and the Miranda is crippled. The stations hull starts to buckle. Ahz checks his snesors, unsure of how ths hsips got past him. Then he projects their previosu course and discovers something disturbing. They flew THROUGH his ship. The Romulans are using phasing cloaks!

Dupree wakes up and looks around. The first thing he notices is that he's not in the shuttle anymore. The next thing he notices is that he's surrounded by a number of doctors
oohh.. Where am I?

Impressive. Ryo-O, what would happen if I were to teleport to the Warbird? Would I be in phase with them or not?

Ryo-O: "There is a 75% chance that you would be in phase with the Warbird after teleporting.

Ok. I'll get a suit. You keep those carriers away from here.

Ahz runs down some steps and opens a locker built, or rather, carved into the platform. He puts on the space suit and disappears.

He reappears in the first Warbird's engine room and lands on a solid deck. He pulls an energy sword out of the thin air and hurls it towards the quantum singularity powering the vessel and then vanishes. When the energy sword hits the reactor, the Warbird implodes.

During the fight, three more Warbirds de-cloak, just behind the first Romulan attack wave. Suddenly, they fire on the toher Warbirds! The face of a Romulan cpatin appears on the Archangel viewscreen,, although the message is being sent to all Starfleet ships, and Ahz's vessel. "This is Fleet Captain Tomalak to Federation and Unknown ships. Those ships attacking you are NOT Warbirds. I repeat not Warbirds. They've been fitted with recognition codes similar to our own. Only we can tell the difference. We'll take out those ships ourselves, but the Breen are your problem." The trnamission cuts out.

The med lab in the repait base shudders with the impact of energy weapons scrapping the hull. Mericfully, the massive firefight outside seems to be limited to ship to ship. The base's EMH, a wirey looking humanoid, with messy hair and glasses leans over Jackson. He injects him with something that wakes him from the coma that the EMH had to induce in order to perform his procedures. "Ah, Mr. Dupree. Welcome back to the land of the living such as it is. If you have any questions, I'm afraid they'll have to wait. We have a series of casualties coming in shortly. So far no fatatlities, and I'd like to keep it that way, and being distracted would not help."

-

Outside, the firefight intensifies. The Romulan and fauxRomulan vessles hammer away at each other. The battle seems to be stagnant as the ships seem evenly matched. Ryo-O has so far taken care of most of the Breen fighters, but several break throguh and began strafing the Bellephoron. Greymoran watches this at the tactical console over Hudzen's shoulder. "Dammit! People are dying out there, and we're stuck here!" Carrie's face replaces the tactical display. "There's not much we can do sir. We're in too bad a shape to last long in a fight that intense."

-

The remaining Breen carriers pull back, as far away from the heat of combat possible. Suddenly, a large masss of ships come out of warp, and begin firing on the mostly defenseless carriers. The Gorn have arrived en masse. The Gorn battlecruiser that had joine dthe battle earlier obviously managed to get a distress call out. The Breen warships that were swarming the Ryo-O break off to engage the Gorn fleet, consisting of about a dozen light cruisers, and a pair of Dreadnoughts. Two of the Breen vessels ram one of the Dreadnoughts, but even though a massive hole in the Gorn's hull has been made, the ship keeps firing, until finally the explosive decompression cripples it.

-

Back aboard the Archangel Keith and Rita cheer as the Gron appear and begin hammering at the Breeen carriers. "Yes!" they cheer in unison. Hudzen hits a few buttons on his panel. Greymoran watches as a new tactical display appears. He sees the ramming of the Gorn Dreadnoguht. "By Helm! What is that ship made of? A Starfleet or Klingon vessel would've been tonr apart by a ramming attack like that!" Carrie's voice replies, "Gorn ships are built to take massive punishment. Their armor is so thick it makes up for the weak sheilding. Unfortunately it makes the ship bulky and less manueverable than a cow in the mud, but again they compensate with heavy weaponry."

-

Fire spews out form the sides of the Bellephoron. The ship drifts, and slams hard into the side of the docked Galaxy-class vessel saucer section that was docked there. The two ships go up in a ball of fire that knock the station on it's axis. The shockwave tears the reapir bots away from the ships in the center of the dock, but mercifully, the sheilds protect them from further damage. The bases shudders, and beams collapse. He coughs as smoke fills his quarters. "Computer, report!" "The Bellephoron was destroyed. The damage came from the explosion. A Gorn fleet has appeared and has engaged the Breen."

-

A pair of Gorn Light Cruisers move towards the battling Romulan ships. Only three ships remian. Two of the Warbirds are firing on one of the other Warbirds. The third Warbird begins flying towards the base, swerving to avoid the disruptor fire from the other two. It increases it's speed then aims towards the bases command center. The Gron cruisers, and the two other Warbirds open fire with everything they have. The enemy Warbird gets caught in the crossfire and blows apart. The debris impact harmelssly against the base's sheilds. The two Warbirds that remained turned away and went to warp.

-

"Not so much as a 'thank you' from that little ingrate." Rita mutters as the two Warbirds go into warp. Greymoran sighs. "What do you expect? They're Romulans. Carrie, report." Carrie's face appears on the viewscreen. "Well, the enemy Warbirds have been disposed of, Ahz and the Gorn have the Breen captial ships tied up, but the fighters are pciking the base apart. It's defenses are unable to do any serious damage to the fighters. They're moving too fast. And if the three Gonr vessels that are in a defenseive formation right now attempt to fire, they risk hitting the base." Rita flexes her repaired arm then turns to Greymoran. "We have one shuttle left. It's fast, and well armed. And my arm is as good as new." Keith shakes his head. "No way Reet. You'd be outnumbered three to one!" Greymoran sighs. "But we don't have much choice Keith. Rita, go ahead. And, may Helm guide your sword." Rita smiles. "If that means good luck, thanks."

Rita's fingers dance across the panel in the fron of the shuttle as it swings back and forth narrowly avoiding fire form the two Breen fighters that have started tailing her. "Well, at least that's two fewer firing at the station. But it's not gonna last much longer unless I do something." She dives through the wreckage of the Miranda, almost getting clipped several times. When the other side became visible, she saw the enemy fighters waiting. Just as she'd thought they would. "Right where I want you." She arms five of the ten micro-torps on the shutle, and fires them at the closest fighter as she sped past them. The fighter blew apart when three of the toprs hit it. One missed and went wild. The fifth hit the other fighter's cockpit. The fighter flares up, then explodes. "Yes! Two down, about 20 to go." She brings her shuttle up behind a fighter thats firing an energy dissipator at the station's defensive guns. The guns go silent when the blasts hit them, their energy drained. Rita fires a phaser into the fighters engine, holding the fire button down until the phaser coolant system automatically disbales it to prvent overheating and explosion. The fighter's engine burst, and the fighter tumbles into the side of the station. The area was already damaged and most likely evacuated so it was doubtful that anyone other than the enemy pilot died in the impact. An energy burst knocks her off course, she brings her phasers to bear on an incoming fighter. She keeps firing. until the cockpit of the enmey fighter melts, and pulls up just in time to avoid getting hit by the out of contorl fighter. A fighter that had tried to sneak up on her was not so lucky. Both fighters go up in a ball of green fire. "5 down, 15 to go." 12 of the fighters continue their barrage of the station. Three of them break off to engage Rita's shuttle. She quickly dispatches them with her five remaining micro-torpedoes, but the debris from the fighters damages the shuttles port side weapons and thrusters. With soem quick thinking, and more than a little luck, she get's fighter stabilized from it's tail-spin, but find that without the port phasers, she's not much of a match for the remaining 12 fighters. Relaizing she's too damaged to fight back, one of them comes towards her, powering it's up. A burst of energy from one of the station's defensive phasers disentegrates the fighter. A communication comes in to her shuttle. "Archangel shuttle, this is base command. We've got some of the phasers those fighters disabled up and running again. There's an emergency airlock you can dock to near by. The phasers will cover you."

The door opens and Rita exits the damaged shuttle onto the vibrating repair base. She is surrounded by a large number of repair bots. Some of them had been outside working on ships before the attack, and now ere hard at work pumping energy into the phaser banks. She carefully walks past them, not wanting to bump into them. A group of repaitr technicians runs past her. One of them shouts, "Hurry up guys! We can't afford to lose the life support!" Rita walks around, and finds a door marked "Communications Center." She walked in, and saw the base commander, curled up in the fetus position, crying. Rita walks over to him. "Commander! You all right?" The commander waves her away, shouting. "No! I did what you told me. I swear I did. I told you everything I could get. About their names, and vitals. What kind of modifications there were. Why did you betray me like this?" Rita raises an eyebrow, then walks over to a communciation console. She finds a padd. On it, was a note from jake Grey. It basically said that if the base commander sent him all the information he could get on the Archangel, he would order his allies in this universe to leave this base alone. Rita spins around and kicks the base commander in the side. "Bastard!" she hisses. She walks over to the communication console and hails the archangel. Hudzen replies. "Carrie and Greymoran are busy at the moment. I can realy your message." Rita then proceeds to tell Hudzen what she learned.

The Commander did what?

Rita repeated her message to Ahz.

Ok, ok... Here's what I want you to do. I want you to run a detailed scan of this ship using the station's sensors. Milk as much data from them as possible and send it here.

Rita nodded and closed the channel. Meanwhile, one of the carriers exploded. The remaining one began calling back its fighters in retreat.

Rita called back and said that she was sending the data to Ryo-O. Ahz looked at the data displayed in a window.

It looks like they only saw what we wanted them to see.

Ryo-O: "It looks that way."

Dupree is sitting on the biobed looking at the Doctor I'm sorry, but I do have a few questions...
Is there any way to contact the Archangel? Who are we being attacked by? And could I have a mirror to see what I now look like?

The EMH finsihes applying a salve to the burns of a female pateint then sighs. He walks over to his desk, grabs a padd, and hands it to Jackson. "You should be able to see your reflection here. As for who's attacking us, I don't know. I've heard some people say it was the Breen, and others say Romulans. And a few people have said something about Romulans shooting at each other." The EMH shakes his head. "You'd think we'd outgrow this whole war thing sooner or later."

Jackson looks into the reflective surface of the PADD Wow Doctor, you really did a good job. I look a bit different, but I guess we can attribute that to the massive reconstructive surgery...

The EMH groans, then proceeds to sedate another patient. The sickbay is filling up. Mostly radiation burns, and a few broken limbs here and there.

The few remaining Breen ships fly off into warp, followed by the bulk of the Gorn fleet and Ryo-O. As soon as they are gone, the ships turn to return to the base, when a pair of ships come out of warp. The Gorn begin to swing aroound for battle, but soon the identity of the ships become clear. Two Excelsior-class vessels. The Cairo, and the Arizona respectively. A quick analysis by Ahz determines that the ships are indeed genuine, and not Jake Grey fakes. The battle for the Repair Station is over, and they missed the party.

-

Greymoran, Hudzen and Kieth rush down the corridor of the base, looking for sickbay. Along the way they run into Rita. Greymoran asks Rita about the bas ecommander. Hudzen had told him about the communication only after the battle was over. "Basically, everything I told Hudzen. Grey now knows our armarments, our crew compliment, even what we can do. Our personal logs were hacked into." Greymoran swears under his breath. A voice calls out, "Wait up dudes!" What looks like a TV strapped to a dinner cart wheels up behind the crew members. Carrie's face is on the screen. "I can only go so fast. Slow down." The crew slows to a tight jog. Soon, they reach the door to sickbay. They open just before they step in fornt of the door's sensors. And out comes someone wearing Jackson's uniform. Rita and Carrie gasp. Keith whistles. Greymoran tilts his head. Hudzen remains still. Jackson, with his new face, looks at the crew and says...

Looks like I missed the party. I seem to have gotten plastic surgery the hard way, though...
Jackson looks at the TV with Carrie's face
I thought we got a body for you back on Hoth...

Carrie smirks. "Apparently you got some amnesia when your shuttle got hit. It was only temporary until I could reconnect to the ship. Still hoping we can skip over to an RDU and get a Hard Light generator for me." Hudzen seems to shift uncomfortably at the mention of RDUs. Greymoran walks over and plants a hand firmly on Jackson's shoulder. Then he smiles and pulls him into a tight hug. "It's good to have you back." He pulls back and beathes a sigh of relief. "And I see you're one step closer to individuality too." The reunited crew, except for Ahz who is still in space with Ryo-O, walk towards the airlock where the ship is docked, repairs begun anew. "You know Jackson, we really are glad to have you back." Keith nods. "I hear that. Cause, you know, a crew is like a machine. It becomes the sum of its parts, and we just weren't as good without you there." Jackson smiles at this. "Yes, it's good to be back." he thinks to himself, as the crew of the Archangel walks down the littered corridor.