Lt. Commander Thoraz Brynaziir
USS Fearless
Stardate 9910.09
"CAPTAIN!" Thoraz jumped out of the First Officer's Chair, hands clasped
to his head."I am picking hundreds of lifeforms, both on the planet and in
space. I can't pinpoint where they are exactly. They must be cloaked or
shielded somehow, since our sensors aren't registering them."
Thoraz waited for Sortha's reply and tried to think of a way to cause Omega
to expose himself.
"If only Sholek were onboard - he could probably devise something. I have a
thought, Captain."
"Brynaziir to Engineering."
"Yes sir, Ensign Merex here."
"Can you modify a probe so that it will disrupt a cloaking device? Or
modify it so it registers as the Fearless with a slight anomaly out cloak? If
we can trick them into thinking we're somewhere else, we can turn their
ambush back on them."
Thoraz looked at Sortha as he waited for the reply from Engineering.
=============================================================
USS Fearless
Near Xerkos IV
Stardate 9910.10
"Mr. Brynaziir," Sortha said, suddenly standing. "You can belay that order
to engineering."
Thoraz looked up on the viewscreen as the image of a huge Nebula-class
ship materialized on the screen. It was USS Ticonderoga.
"Ticonderoga has decloaked. Range is 500,000 kilometers off our
aft,"Ensign Tomok said at tactical. "She is at full stop and her shields are
raised. No other sign of aggression."
Sortha looked at the screen and scowled. What the hell was going on?
"Hail them," Sortha said.
"They are hailing us,"Tomok stated. "Incoming transmission from Commander
Dara IIia, first officer of Ticonderoga."
"On screen," Sortha hissed.
"This is Commander Dara Ilia, acting Captain of the USS Ticonderoga."
she paused a moment and exhaled slowly before continuing. "We have detained
Admiral Palanar as you have requested. Captain Tafner was, unfortunately,
killed during the firefight that ensued between Palanar's people and our own.
I request that you decloak so we may discuss this situation face to face."
=============================================================
Captain Sortha
USS Fearless
Stardate 9910.
"Thoraz??" Sortha said simply.
"She's nervous, guilty, hesitant" Thoraz replied quickly, "she's lying."
"Computer, voice stress analysis" Sortha ordered
"Subject voice analysis confirms Lieutenant Commander Brynaziir's
assessment" the computer replied emotionlessly.
"All right" Sortha hissed. "So Ticonderoga iss sstill Palanaar's
puppet. Well two can play that game. Back us off to the other side of the
system and open a channel, diffuse broadcast so they can't track the source.
Send it general broadcast so anyone with a receiver on Ticonderoga can hear,"
Sortha directed Ensign Tomak. Fifteen seconds later Fearless had moved
further away from Ticonderoga but still within hailing range.
"Ticonderoga, this is Captain Sortha. My condolencess to the crew of
the Ticonderoga for the loss of Captain Tafner. From his death I presume
Admiral Palanar put up a fight. Congratulationss on apprehending him, it
could not have been easy. Knowing Palanar he would have intercepted any
transsmisssionss I attempted to ssend to Ticonderoga, barricaded himsself in
your battle pod, had a meanss of essscaping Ticonderoga to a nearby hidden
vesssel, compromised one or more memberss of your command sstaff to do his
bidding, esstablished kill sswitches all over Ticonderoga to remain in
control of the vesssel in case you tried to apprehend him, and taken
meassures to enssure your compliance with his wisshess ssuch as taking
hostages or otherwise holding ssomething over you.
"Congratulations on thwarting all thesse ssteps Palanar would have done."
Sortha paused for effect letting the words sink in. "Asss ranking officer
I asssume command over Ticonderoga Commander. You are ordered to prepare
your marine contingentss for an asssault on the Conssortium basse on the
planet below.
"Fearless perssonnel have taken heavy cassualties in attempting to
sssecure the basse. This iss a job for heavily armed mariness Commander,
not specialized Starfleet personnel. Get your teamss prepared ASAP, there's
Federation people dying down there. Attack commences no later than 10
minutess. Signal for the attack is your beamdown.
"Fearless will decloak and send additional forces as well. Beam your
marines in two parties on either side of the shielded area. They will
commence a land assault under the shield. Their mission is to secure the
base, shut down the sshield, and rescue any Starfleet personnel on the planet.
"Ohh and Commander I suggest you recloak until the attack, I wonder why
the automated defense stations orbiting this planet haven't opened fire on
you yet, they must have heard you had apprehended Palanar. Keep a close eye
on Palanar Commander, even though you have him secured now, I'm sure he hass
ssomeething up hiss ssleeve. Good Luck, let's save our people Commander.
Sortha out."
After he had cut the transmission, Sortha let out an angry hisss.
"Ssssssssss he still hass Ticonderoga under hiss control. Move uss to a new
position helm 76.45 mark18. To sustain the deception that Palanar has been
apprehended, they'll need to follow my orders and help us take the Consortium
base on Xerkos IV. If they do not assist us, then it will be clear to them
that Fearless knows they are working for Palanar- and they will have to try a
new tactic. I'm hoping that the prospect of Fearless decloaking will be
enough bait for Palanar to send troops down to the planet. Our people need
help down there. "
"When Ticonderoga decloaks again, engage the routine we preprogrammed to
search for Palanar. When they open shields for the beam-down attempt to
locate Palanar. He probably has contingencies for that but attempt to get a
lock anyway. As soon as Ticonderoga starts beaming down personnel, launch
the wild weasel shuttle. Launch the wild weasel within the radius of the
phased cloak, and then move off letting it drop out of phased space. That
should draw the attack on Fearless that I know Palanar hass planned for uss
ass sson ass we decloak. We'll see what cards Palanar iss holding."
=============================================================
Mountain Base
Xerkos IV
Stardate 9910.10
Two guards arrived at the door to Chas'naH and Tomalier's cell. They were
both human...very large, nasty looking humans.
"You," one guard said, pointing at Chas. "You are coming with us. Our
bosses say they want to...talk to you."
Chas noticed the hypospray tucked in the belt of one of the guards and she
realized the Yridian and Nausican had sent these two.
One drew a disruptor and stepped back a few steps, while the other
deactivated the forcefield on the doorway.
"Come on out...we don't want to get rough," the man at the door said.
They then waited to see what Chas would do...
=============================================================
Lieutenant JG Chas'naH
Xerkos IV
Stardate 9910.11
Chas'naH rose slowly, unsteadily. She was playing the same charade she
had when she and Sortha had been captured - pretending she was weak from not
receiving her medication. she had been a bit weak then, because it had been
over a day..but this time it had only been a few hours, and she was still
feeling quite fine.
Of course, these idiots probably didn't know that.
"I won't..resist," Chas'naH said haltingly, making her gait a bit
unsteady as she approached the doorway.
The man at the door looked at her. "whats wrong with you?"
"I haven't had my medicine," Chas'naH muttered, pausing in the doorway,
appearing to be resting for a moment. "I'm..weak."
The human holding the disruptor laughed. "Guess we won't need this
afterall" he said, putting the hypospray away. Chas'naH had been right. the
drug hadn't been anything to help loosen her tongue for an interrogation..it
had been to remder her helpless while their bosses had their fun with her.
Rage built up inside of her. Who ever told them she was anyone's plaything?
The man by the door grabbed her by the arm. "Come on sweetheart," he
leered. "Time to party." He hauled her through the doorway, shoving her over
to the other man. chas'naH swayed weakly next to the armed man, watching,
waiting for exactly the right moment.
The one by the door turned away from them to reactivate the
forcefield..and Chas'naH saw her opportunity. the armed man she was next to
had also lowered his weapon, thinking the threat was over.
How wrong he was.
Chas'naH turned on them like a wild animal. She grabbed the arm holding
the disruptor and bent it sharply back, at the same time driving her knee
into his chest. There was a satisfying snap as his arm broke and the
disruptor fell to the floor.
"What the hell!" the other man yelled, drawing his own disruptor.
Chas'naH ducked as a disruptor blast went over her head. She rolled and
grabbed the disruptor on the floor and fired with deadly precision, striking
him in the chest. She watched with satisfaction as the wound spread from its
point of impact and within seconds he was gone.
The other man was leaning back against the wall, holding his broken arm,
wincing in pain. Chas'naH raised the disruptor again, a cold gleam in her eyes.
"No.." the man breathed. He suddenly looked very frightened. These thugs
were all the same. Take away their weapons and suddenly they were frightened
children. "No, look, you guys can go, i won't tell them you escaped, i'll.."
Chas'naH fired. An instant later the man was gone.
She holstered the disruptor and deactivated the forcefield over the cell
again. "Let's go," she said to Tomalier. "We have to find the others."
END TRANSMISSION
Lieutenant Commander Sholek
Xerkos IV
Stardate 9910.11
"Sir," one of Sholek's team said. "If our shuttle can get under the
shield, they might be able to lock on to us and beam us away? Maybe we can
find a way to signal them?"
Sholek grabbed his tricorder and attempted to boost the strength.
"Sholek to Fearless shuttle," he said when he was confident that the
communicator had been boosted to the max.
"Shuttle.....ere," they heard the garbled
message."our..t..oming...ery.... ear."
Sholek tried modifying the communicator to filter out the distortion.
"Please repeat shuttle," he replied. "You message was garbled."
"We can ..ere you fine now, ...ir," came the less garbled message.
"There is a group of Mercenaries below us," Sholek said. "I want you to
eliminate them then land the shuttle as close as possible to that disrupter
you just blew up. I want to use the shuttle's computer system to try to
access the bases system, assuming you didn't destroy the connection."
"Copy, Sholek," the shuttle pilot replied. "We're on our way."
============================================================
Captain Sortha
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.12
"Sir" Ensign Tomak began, "Ticonderoga recloaked. Using your tracking
subroutine they are taking a course toward Xerkos VI, wait.... they just
remodulated their cloak. We lost them again."
"That's okay Ensign, it'll only take five minutes to reaquire them this
time, each successive modulation becomes more ineffective as the subroutine
proceesses more information about their cloak system." Sortha replied.
Damn, Sortha thought to himself. They hadn't taken the bait. Well,
that was to be expected. Palanar was no fool. Xerkos VI he wondered, what
was in that gas giant?
It would be the perfect place to hide the fleet that Sortha had surmised
Palanar would have standing by earlier (post 9909.18). He feared for
Ticonderoga, however he couldn't take any actions against it without
appearing to its crew to be taking offensive action. He'd given them enough
information about Palanar- they'd have to move against him.
"Ensign, status of our wild weasel?"
"It's on a course 3456mark 45 Sir"
"Send it to Xerkos VI. Full scans, let's see how close it can get. Full
scans. Continue to duplicate Fearless' signal. Order it to self destruct if
it is boarded, tractored, or probed with intensive scans. Give it an
announced ten second countdown in case anyone from Ticonderoga beams aboard.
I don't want any Starfleet people killed."
"Aye aye sir" Tomak responded smartly. Sortha gave her an appreciative
nod, the young ensign had been doing an admirable job filling in at tactical
for the senior Tyrian. Still Sortha would feel more comfortable with his
senior officers on board. He determined to remedy that right away. Right
now, they were still down on the planet. It was time for decisive action.
Now that his shuttles had destroyed the base's ground defense batteries,
Fearless could go in.
"Now for our people, Helm, let Ticonderoga go. Ensign Ortega" Sortha
ordered, contacting the one operational Fearless shuttle on the planet, "Pick
up all survivors on the outside of the base. We are detecting Sholek with
one crewman, Tyrian with two crewmen, a solo Commander Dyer, and three
survivors from the other shuttle. Once you've picked them up, or beamed
them aboard, rendezvous with Fearless. Sortha out."
Down on the planet, Ortega lifted his Stealth shuttle off the ground and
skimmed the surface of the planet as low as possible. He quickly located
Commander Dyer, who appeared to be suffering from multiple wounds.
Doing a quick fly-by he beamed Dyer aboard. The two security officers in
the back of the shuttle began assisting Dyer with his wounds.
"Sir, the Captain has ordered us to pick up Fearless survivors" Ortega
informed Dyer.
"What the hell did we walk into" Dyer asked, still shell shocked from the
concussion of the grenades that had obliterated his team, and nearly killed him.
"The headquarters for the entire Consortium I believe sir" Ortega replied
as he swooped over Sholek's position. Using the shuttle's phasers, Ortega
vaporized the team of mercs pursuing Sholek, then did a quick beam in and
Sholek and his lone remaining security officer appeared in the shuttle's
transporter pad.
"Ahh, thank you ensign" Sholek said emotionlessly, "these accomodations
are much preferable to our previous habitat."
Dyer shook his head, and let out a slight chuckle. "Now if you will be
so kind ensign, I do believe that my piloting skills, and reflexes are
somewhat superior to yours. What about that uplink I asked about?"
"Sorry sir, the uplink was destroyed," Ortega said, moving over to let
Sholek take the pilot's seat. "Lieutenant Commander Summers is engaged in a
heavy firefight in those rock outcroppings to your left."
"Ahhh good" Sholek replied, as he swung the shuttle over in a gut
wrenching dive. As the shuttle neared Tyrian's position it received small
arms fire. "I don't think I'm going to be able to lower shields" Ortega
announced.
"Fine, then we do this the old fashioned way" Sholek announced.
Everyone pulled out their phaser rifles, including Commander Dyer who propped
himself up against a bulkhead.
"Tyrian" Sholek announced, "Get ready to make a run for it." Sholek put
the shuttle down aand opened the shuttle's hatch. Dyer and the rest of the
Starfleet officers immediately opened fire. They could see Tyrian and the
two security officers trying to make it to the shuttle, dodging from rock to
rock. The firing intensified as the security officer who had been with
Sholek took a hit and tumbled out of the shuttlecraft dead, his head a gory
mass of melted flesh and bone.
"Come on!" Dyer yelled to Tyrian. Another security officer took a hit,
splattering Dyer with his blood.
Tyrian and his two security officers had made it close enough to the
shuttle to make a dash. They sprinted the final thirty yards as the shuttle
launched a barrage of covering phaser fire. Tyrian was the fastest and
reached the shuttle just as one of his security officers was hit in the back
and went down smoking.
The team could see numerous dead Raptor Claw personnel littering the
rocky landscape as well. The last security officer made it to the shuttle
with his left arm blown off at the elbow. Screaming he flopped into the shuttle.
Sholek quickly raised shields and lifted off, but not before spraying the
entire area with phaser fire from the shuttles' batteries. In the back of
the shuttle it was a bloody mess. Sholek piloted over to the remaining
shuttle teams position. The three were dug in in a defensive position but
fortunately for them had not landed close to any Raptor Claw personnel.
The three were beamed up without incident. It was tight in the back of
the shuttle, but no one complained. None of the Shadow Ops people had
experienced a mauling like they had just received and all were shaken that
their aaura of invincibility had been breached. They'd been heavily
outnumbered, but theyd been outnumbered before.
The Raptor Claw personnel were top notch mercs, not your average galactic
mercenary scum. Sholek quickly powered the shuttle to the other side of
the planet and hovered in space.
"The nearest defense platform is scanning for us, but stealth mode must be
throwing them off," Ortega said, checking sensors. "But...wait...something's
coming up from the surface."
Dyer scowled. "On screen."
The image of eight Orion fighters coming up from the surface appeared on
the console viewscreen. They were coming in fast, with weapons powered up.
"Eight fighters, launched from under the mountain," Ortega confirmed.
"They'll intercept us in 15 seconds."
"Our stealth configuration isn't helping?" Dyer asked.
"Negative. They must have adapted their sensors with all those runs I
made on the mountain," Ortega said. "They have us lit up on their sensors
like a Christmas tree."
On Fearless, which was moving to retrieve the shuttle, they too saw the
incoming fighters.
=============================================================
Xerkos IV
Consortium Mountain Base
Stardate 9910.14
Tozal Intarus sat at his station in the command center of the mountain
base. The Yridian was fidgeting as he watched the tactical display on the
screen in front of him.
"Reshkal," he finally said. "The fighters will intercept the shuttle in 1
minute."
"Is the defense platform having any luck locking on to the shuttle
craft?" the huge Nausican said.
"No. With the uplink damaged I can't transmit our sensor logs...but our
engineering team is on it," Intarus smiled. "Why did this have to happen
now...the Klingon woman is probably waiting for us in the interrogation
cell...I was so looking forward to having fun with her."
Reshkal growled. "You have a one track mind. We are in serious jeopardy
here, and all you can think about is the Klingon half-breed."
"My apologies," the Yridian said.
"Is the phaser cannon still functional?" the Nausican asked, checking a
console next to him.
"Yes. It is cloaked on top of the mountain," Intarus said. "It is ready
to fire. If Fearless shows herself, we should be able to strike at it all the
way into orbit."
"I'm hoping he makes another close pass," Reshkal growled. "We weren't
ready for him last time, and the shuttles were too small of targets to use
the cannon on."
"Do not worry. I have auto-programmed the targeting computer to decloak
the cannon and fire if Fearless comes into firing range," the Yridian said.
"It had better work...that is our last functioning piece of defense
equipment beside the shield," Reshkal said, checking readouts beside him.
"Raptor's Claw is reporting 28 dead and 8 missing from the forces we sent
outside. I'm deploying the rest of the troops to defend the base, in case we
are attacked and raided."
Intarus listened, but was busy checking an incoming report from internal
security. He gasp and then turned toward the Nausican. "Chas'naH and the
Fearless crewman have escaped. She overpowered the guards when they went to
move her."
Reshkal snarled and slammed a fist into the console next to him. "You
horney worm...I told you she should have been left in that cell!"
"I'm alerting security," Intarus said. "She won't get far."
"This base has 20 levels to it, moron," Reshkal barked. "They could be
anywhere. Send a team of Raptor Claw soldiers to guard the chambers of the
CEO and the rest of the Board of Directors. Omega had better show results
soon. This is getting out of hand."
"Security is alerted," the Yridian said. "Fighters will intercept in 15
seconds. That shuttle is toast."
"Not if Fearless shows up," Reshkal said, "in case they do, however, I
have the defense platforms ready to lock on and fire."
=============================================================
Jaegar's scout ship
Rings of Xerkos VI
Stardate 9910.14
Greg Durham was about to do as Kostov said, the ship breaking up around
them, when both he and Kostov disappeared in a swirl of sparkling light. They
reappeared on the transporter padd of a foreign, dimly lit ship.
Standing by were a team a Orion pirates, disruptor rifles armed and aimed
at the two Starfleet officers.
"You are prisoners of the Consortium," the leader of the team said, a
hulking, green-skinned Orion with a long, single braid of black hair hanging
down the back of his otherwise bald head. "Your weapons have been
deactivated. Surrender or die."
END TRANSMISSION
Captain Sortha
USS Fearless
Stardate 9910.15
"Sir, multiple targets are closing on our shuttlecraft, interception time
one minute" ensign Tomak manning tactical stated.
Sortha had come this close to rescuing his team from Xerkos IV, he
wasn't about to let them get blown out of the sky now. "Helm, take us in,
maximum impulse!" Fearless swooped down from its orbit directly for its
shuttlecraft. "Prepare to transport the team," Sortha ordered as Fearless
screamed in.
The closure rate was sickening "Helm take us right past our shuttle, no
speed reduction," Sortha ordered. The Fearless moved in close to it's
shuttlecraft on a parallel course.
"Now! Beam them off the shuttle!" Sortha ordered. By now the fighters
were pounding the shuttle, disruptor shots tearing away at the shields.
The pursuing fighters from the planet's surface were just within firing
range. "We have them now" the fighter squadron leader snarled as the five
lead fighters cut loose with disruptors.
The shuttle was badly damaged and about to break apart under the
pounding when Fearless beamed the crew off. Less than five seconds later, the
shuttle's warp core breached and it was gone.
It took the fighter squadron leader precious seconds to realize what had
happened. He noticed on his sensors the crew's life signs disappear just
seconds before the shuttle exploded...and he recognized the unusual phase
variance sensors detected in the cabin of the shuttle at the time the life
signs disappeared. Fearless was there, her phased cloak engaged, and had
beamed the team off He quickly relayed the message to the Consortium base.
Reshkel, the Nausican base commander, snarled in delight as the astute
fighter pilot relayed his sensor data to the Consortium base. They had a
fleeting sensor contact with an unusual phase variance...it was Fearless.
"Scan for that phase variance," Reshkel barked at his subordinates.
"Reroute the phase inducers through the phaser cannon to match that variance.
We might get a shot at them yet."
On board Fearless, Sortha was just finished ordering a course correction
and Fearless had started her turn when defensive lights around the bridge lit
up, "Incoming!!!!!!!!" A staggeringly powerful burst of phaser fire erupted
from the mountain top and caught Fearless' in a glancing blow.
Had Sortha not ordered a course change and had the conn officer not
executed it quickly, Fearless would have been caught full by the blast.
Still, the power of the blast impacting on the unshielded Fearless was enough
to send the ship careening end over end.
"Attitude controls compensate and stabilize, emergency power to inertial
dampers" Sortha ordered holding tightly onto his chair. Officers were thrown
about the bridge, and Sortha had to implement the commands from his chair
console himself. "Statusss!" Sortha demanded after the ship had stabilized.
"We took a glancing blow, port side! Ablative armor absorbed most of the
blast, but we have a weak spot there now. Minor hull breach on deck 14. Minor
injuries reported on all decks. All systems normal."
"That was a close one" Ensign Tomak exclaimed from tactical. "How did they
see us? And how did they get a phaser blast through our phased cloak?"
"Review sensor logs" Sortha hissed. "Calculate the trajectory of that
weapon. That blast came from the planet's surface."
"Calculating" Tomak said as she busily reviewed the Fearless' sensor
logs. "The blast came from the top of the mountain base at coordinates
45.78.12 by 120.34.02. They must have some sort of phase inducers working
within the weapon. The blast was tuned to our phase variance."
"They must open a window in their shields to fire that weapon" Sortha
surmised. "What was the power rating of that weapon ensign?"
"From our sensor log, I estimate it to be a type 20 planetary defense
phaser cannon."
"If we reinforce the forward shields will that stop a direct hit?" Sortha
inquired.
"It'll be close sir" Tomak replied.
"How close?" Sortha asked.
"Very, very close" Tomak answered.
"Let's hope they don't get a chance to test our shields. Prepare a probe.
Program it with the current phase variance signature of Fearless' cloak,"
Sortha ordered. "Then, change our own phase variance so they can't track us
again. Helm line us directly above that mountain top."
Fearless moved into position. "This will take careful timing people.
Transport the probe into space, within range of that cannon. Then we'll begin
our attack. As soon as we detect weapons fire, we'll decloak, target the
source of the fire and strike. We'll use that opportunity to fire on that
base below, rig phaser fire for computer control, automatic firing as soon as
a weapon discharge is detected, parallel path to the outgoing phaser strike,
full intensity for as long as possible. Understood?"
A chorus of aye aye sirs resounded throughout the bridge.
Soon, the base detected the phase variance its sensors were seeking and
locked on. The cannon fired on cue and when the window in the base shields
opened, Sortha reacted.
"Now, decloak!" Sortha ordered. Fearless decloaked, allowing the base to
see her.
Down on the base, the the Nausican Reshkel howled, "There she is! That
phase variance we detected was a decoy. Deactivate phase inducers and fire!"
"But," Intarus, the Yridian began, "did you consid..."
"I said fire!" Reshkel yelled.
But the electronic brain of Fearless had already directed its weapons to
fire on the base below, through the hole in the shield the huge phaser cannon
was using. Fearless' phaser strike followed the same path as the first
blast from the phaser canon, finding the small hole in the base's defensive
shield. A large explosion could be detected on the planet's surface in the
vicinity of the top of the Consortium mountain.
"Recloak, helm course 2345 mark 80" Sortha ordered as Fearless
disappeared and moved again. A wild barrage of cheers greeted Commander
Dyer and Tyrian as they arrived on the bridge. "We just took out their
phaser cannon" Sortha informed them. "It's good to have you back."
Meanwhile Sortha wondered if Starfleet was going to make him pay for all
those shuttlecraft.
=============================================================
Consortium Base
Xerkos IV
Stardate 9910.15
The entire base trembled as Fearless destroyed the base phaser cannon. The
lights in the command center flickered briefly and some sparks flew from a
couple of consoles. Humrak Reshkel growled in anger at the loss of his toy.
"Our last piece of offensive weapontry has been destroyed," Intarus
pointed out. "Your orders?"
Reshkel glared at the tactical display, eyeing the spot where Fearless
had just been on the screen. He wanted to skin this Gorn badly...and to ring
the neck of Palanar for allowing things to get this bad.
"Keep the fighters scrambled. I want them to stay close to the planet's
surface and maintain a low sensor profile," he said. "Have the rest of the
fighters on deck, ready to launch.
"And find that Klingon bitch! I want her brought to me!" Reshkel
muttered. He then turned back to his console and waited for the next move by
the Gorn captain.
Just then, the turbolift doors into the command center slid open and
three figures entered. Two were huge Klingons wearing civilian clothing. The
third was a withered, blue-skinned man in an anti-grav wheelchair.
"You idiot," Intarus whispered as he and Reshkel jumped to their feet.
"Now you've done it...the CEO is here."
Reshkel beared his fanglike teeth to the Yridian. "Shut up, worm. I'll
deal with him."
The Klingons and the CEO approached the ops area on the command center.
The old Andorian barely could hold himself up in the chair as they neared,
but his angry gaze was cast upon Reshkel as he neared.
"Are you even capable of defending this installation against the attacks
of one Starfleet vessel?" the angry old Andorian snarled. He then began
coughing uncontrollably, before looking up and shaking a fist at the
Nausican. "I understand the base has lost all offensive capability?"
Intarus smiled from beside Reshkel and nodded, "Our apologies sir...but
this Gorn, Sortha, is cunning."
"And Palanar has yet to come through." the Nausican growled. "He was
supposed to have destroyed or captured Fearless by now. He has done neither
and is quite possibly dead or captured himself...which means Ticonderoga is
out there, and could soon join Fearless."
"He will come through," the CEO hissed. "The Klingon female's betrayal
has been a hinderance. But at some point, Fearless will attack. And when she
does we will hit them with everything we have."
"I hope it is enough," Reshkel muttered. "So far he has delivered
nothing. Fearless still has use of her phased cloak, Ticonderoga has not
appeared with the phased torpedos and neither vessel is in our hands. This
was not how this scenario was supposed to be played out."
The Andorian, his breathing labored, just glared coldly at the Nausican.
It was a look of death, from a man who looked like he was days...maybe even
hours away from his own death.
"Palanar will come through," The CEO said. "And when he does we will make
Fearless suffer for what it has done. And the first phase of my revenge on
the Federation will be complete."
"With all due respect, sir, I do not think Palanar is capable of..."
Reshkel began, only to be cut off by the old Andorian who tried
unsuccessfully to get out of his chair to face the Nausican.
"He is my son and he will succeed!" the old man managed before being
consumed by an agonizing spasm that made his entire body lurch. He sank back
in his chair and caught his breath, and despite his trembling body, he
continued. "And...when he...d-does....he will...take his...place as the new
leader of the Consortium!"
Reshkel shook his head, "Sir, he..."
"Enough!!!!! I am through with you! Intarus, you are in command now," the
old Andorian snarled, his body still shaking from the muscular seizure he'd
experienced. "Reshkel, take a security contingent and go find the Klingon
woman...Chas'naH. I want her punished for her insolance. Do not return
without Chas'naH...dead or alive."
Humrak Reshkel glared sideways at Intarus, who smiled back. He would have
snapped the neck of the little Yridian if he could, but with the CEO watching
it would be impossible to pass the death off as an accident.
He'd deal with Intarus later....if Palanar didn't get them all killed first.
"As you wish, sir," he said to the CEO, then turned and left.
=============================================================
Lt. Commander Thoraz Brynaziir
USS Fearless
Stardate 9910.15
Thoraz, seeing that the captain's bluff with Palanar and Ticonderoga
didn't work, knew it was time for desperate measure. Closing his eyes, he
reached out telepathically, searching for Lt Commander Jeff O'Neil, the
senior most betazoid on the Ticonderoga, and a fellow Shadow Ops Operative.
<>
END TRANSMISSION
Captain Sortha
USS Fearless
Stardate 9910.19
Sortha felt much better with all of his senior officers on the bridge.
Tyrian now manned Tactical, taking over for Ensign Tomak, who actually had
done a very good job. She stood manning the damage control console directly
behind the tactical station. Sholek was down in engineering nursing the
last bit of energy out of Fearless' warp core. Commander Dyer sat in the XO
chair to the right of Sortha. He'd gotten a fresh uniform and the medtech
who had just treated him was leaving the bridge. Thoraz sat in the chair to
Sortha's left, deep in meditation. He had apparently been able to link
telepathically with another person on Ticonderoga. Sortha didn't disturb
him as he concentrated.
Chas'nah was still stuck on the Xerkos IV, but Sortha had no way of
locating her, and the disappearance of the Ticonderoga, last seen heading
for the gas giant Xerkos VI, had to have top priority.
The hull breach on deck 14 had been sealed off and additional structural
integrity fields set in place. Fearless was once again in open space away
from Xerkos IV, heading toward Xerkos VI. Ticonderoga had been heading
there when last seen, and Sortha couldn't think of a reason why she would go
there if she was under Starfleet command. His messages had obviously
provoked some kind of reaction on Ticonderoga, unfortunately it seemed that
the enemy had gotten control of the vessel.
If so that meant that Fearless could potentially have to face Ticonderoga
and whatever fleet Palanar had hiding around here. From the amount of
interference around Xerkos VI Sortha surmised Palanar's fleet was in there.
Earlier Sortha had reasoned that Palanar would not count on Chas'naH's
betrayal or the ability of Ticonderoga to take Fearless out- hence he would
most likely have some powerful backup, and enough backup to take out BOTH
Fearless and Ticonderoga if things went bad.
Sortha thought a coward like Palanar would want at least twice the
firepower of the two Starfleet ships available at his disposal, and possibly
three knowing the type of covert coward that type typically was. That
meant that Palanar had to have at least eight to twelve ships in his fleet.
If Fearless didn't have her phased cloak, he knew the prudent course of
action would be to run. Sortha determined to himself to have some Gorn
plasma torpedo launchers retrofitted onto Fearless if they lived through this.
Admiral Jaeger had joined Sortha on the bridge now. He still wore
civilian clothing and officially was not Starfleet personnel anymore,
however Sortha thought the old man might have important tactical points
about Palanar's behavior. The old man stared intently at the screen from a
chair to one side of the bridge.
===========================================================
Lieutenant JG Chas'naH
Xerkos IV
Stardate 9910.19
Chas'naH paused for a moment to catch her breath. she leaned against the
wall, her hot Klingon blood pumping through her veins. Her breath was harsh.
And she was completely lost.
She looked around, unable to tell one corridor from another. She had no
idea just how far under the surface she was, or even what direction she was
heading. For all she knew she could be walking into even bigger trouble then
from what she just left.
She readied her disruptor and moved on. She stopped and flattened
against the wall as she heard voices up ahead.
"We've got our orders, find that Klingon bitch!" she heard a gruff voice
yell. "Shoot on sight, she's dangerous, we're not taking any chances. She's
just as good to us dead."
Chas'naH growled low in her throat. She had no idea how many there were.
She looked over to Ensign Tomalier who had escaped with her and made a
silent hand gesture. He nodded and moved up closer to her, his stolen
disruptor at the ready.
Chas'naH carefully peeked around the corner. She counted the soldiers
quickly. Six. Not very fair odds, but not impossible ones either. She had
faced worse. She silently indicated to her partner how many there were, then
with another gesture ordered him to go to the opposite wall of the corridor.
He did, pressing himself against the wall, weapon readied.
She counted silently with her fingers..three, two, one..go! And they
jumped out and opened fire.
They caught the group by surprise..they took out four before they could
react. The other two quickly dove for cover, crouching down and returning fire.
The two Starfleet officers fell back, firing, and dodging gunfire.
Chas'naH felt a searing pain in her left forearm but didn't pause to see how
badly she'd been hit. Suddenly her comrade fell, a black hole burned through
his chest.
Chas'naH decided she had nothing left to lose. She rose and let out a
warrior's yell as she charged full force towards her two attackers, firing
wildly. She took out one of them, the man vanishing as he was vaporized. The
other one kept firing. Somehow not a shot touched her. When she got within
range she launched herself at him, snarling as she landed on top of him.
The two struggled, and the man tried to raise his weapon to shoot her.
She grabbed his arm and snapped it back brutally, breaking it. The man
yelled in pain and Chas'naH let out a howl of victory. his weapon clattered
away, useless.
The man struck her with the closed fist of his good arm, sending her
reeling. He was on her in a second, his broken arm dangling uselessly next
to him. As he raised his fist to hit her again, Chas'naH jammed her knee
viciously into his crotch.
He rolled off of her, holding his groin and groaning in pain. She
reached out with her muscular legs, and, catching the man's head between
them, with a sharp snap of her powerful legs she broke his neck.
She slumped there on the floor for a few minutes, catching her breath.
She was dimly aware now that she had been shot, and blood was pouring out of
the wound. She sat up and tore a piece of cloth off the dead man's uniform
and wrapped it around her wounded arm.
She then rose to her feet, and after a moment of getting her bearings,
moved on. She only hoped she would find a way out..and to the others..soon.
=============================================================
USS Fearless
Bridge
Stardate 9910.20
"I've got something," Tyrian Summers announced at tactical. "I caught a
fleeting sensor contact with a large object, about the size of a
Nebula-class starship, moving with short impulse bursts through the rings
around Xerkos VI. Byrtium dust in the rings is making it difficult to
determine much more."
Jaegar looked at Sortha. "What are they doing in there?"
"Difficult to sssay," Sortha hissed. "Sssoundsss like they've decloaked
though. Thoraz, any luck with contacting the Ticonderoga telepath?"
Brynaziir's eyes opened and he nodded, "Yes...but I have yet to hear a
reply. My message has been conveyed."
"Keep on it," Sortha said.
"What do you think, captain," Jaegar asked. "Should we go see what
Ticonderoga is up to?"
END TRANSMISSION
Captain Sortha
USS Fearless
Stardate 9910.22
"I think you may be right Admiral, it's time to ssee what'ss insside
Xerkoss VI." Sortha replied to Jeager's prompt. "Helm take us in. Half
impulse. Full sensors." As the USS Fearless approached closer to Xerkos
VI, she received a general distress message. It was garbled but after
several attempts at resolution, it mostly came through.
"Ticondero....to Fearle.... or...Dragoslayer! Come...we...have been
attacked....require assistance!"
"Sir, Ticonderoga needs our assistance" Lieutenant Commander Summers said
excitedly.
"Hold on" Sorha cautioned, "it could be a trap. Ticonderoga was under
Palanar's control only minutes before."
"Captain" Thoraz interrupted, "I think it's genuine. I am in...was in
telepathic contact with a lieutenant O'Neil sir."
"Very well then" Sortha stated, taking his second officer at his word,
"Take us in. I want our cloak monitored at all times. They mentioned a
Dragonslayer, do you know of a Federation vessel called Dragonslayer?" Sortha
asked. No one on the bridge had heard of it but Sholek who listened in on
all bridge traffic conversation answered.
"I remember reading about something called the Dragon project" Sholek
informed everyone, "in some classified Starfleet shipyard engineering
reports. It was a project to develop module based specialty shuttlecraft for
covert missions. There were to be five prototype ships built. All to have
the Dragon prefix as part of their designation. Dragonslayer may be one of
those ships sir."
"Thank you Sholek" Sortha replied, declining at that time to question his
engineer as to how he had gotten his hands on those engineering reports.
"Tactical what can you see?" Sortha demanded as they entered the outer layer
of Xerkos VI.
Scans report sixteen vessels. One of them is definitely Ticonderoga!
She's under attack by two birds of prey, four Orion light cruisers, and an
Orion heavy cruiser. Two Ferengi Marauders, an Orion Battleship, three
Orion corvettes, and two unidentified vesels. Ticonderoga has managed to
damage one bird of prey.
"What'sss their sshield sstatus?" Sortha demanded.
"Shields are down to 45% and failing fast" Tyrian responded. "Look at
the beating she's taking." As Fearless moved closer they all saw a sight
that made them cringe. A Federation vessel immobile, being pounded by
multiple enemies. Ticonderoga was getting off a few shots, but they looked
ineffective.
Everyone looked to Sortha for what would happen next.
============================================================
Lieutenant JG Chas'naH
Xerkos IV
Stardate 9910.22
Chas'naH continued on her journey, choosing corridors at random, doubling
back when it seemed she'd run into a dead end. The tunnels and corridors were
endless. She didn't know how anyone manged to find their way around this place.
She hadn't encountered anyone else since the security team. she supposed
it was just as well. Her left arm had stopped bleeding but it hurt like hell,
pounding in a slow, steady throb. She doubted it would be much use if she had
to get into another hand to hand combat situation.
After wandering for what seemed like hours, the corridors began to widen.
Doors began to appear more and more often and she moved more carefully, the
disruptor poised to take out anyone who might show up unexpectedly.
As she was rounding the corner she heard voices. She stopped, pressing
back against the wall, peering around the corner to see who was coming.
Two large Klingon guards were flanking a withered old Andorian in an
anti-grav wheelchair. they proceeded down the hallway, the Andorian speaking
in a cracked and angry voice.
"I don't want to hear any more paranoid ramblings about defeat!" the old
man snapped. "My son will take care of things. He will deal with the Fearless
and the Ticonderoga, he will not fail!"
Chas'naH growled low in her throat. His son? He must mean Palanar. She
smirked to herself in spite of her rising anger. She now had an idea.
Chas'naH ran out from her hiding place and vaporized the guard on the old
man's right.The other Klingon raised his weapon and fired. Chas ducked and
rolled, firing again as she came back up. The Klingon disappeared.
The old Andorian snarled as Chas'naH approached. "You!" He reached for a
small panel on his chair, apparently to raise some kind of alarm.
Chas'naH did not hesitate. She brought her elbow down hard on the old
man's wrist. The old bones snapped like kindling and he let out a scream.
She growled in satisfaction. "Don't try to call for help again..or i'll
break your other wrist"
The Andorian trembled in pain. He leered again but she saw the fear in
his eyes. "You don't really think you can get away with this, do you?"
Chas'naH shrugged casually. "Perhaps..perhaps not" she forced the old man
in the chair into a nearby room, where she sealed them inside.
"You must be Chas'naH, the little jailbait whore." he sneered. "My son
has told me so much about you."
"Now it is time for you to tell me things." She knelt by the old man's
good hand and grabbed it firmly, holding onto one of the fingers, bending it
up at a dangerous angle. "And each time you refuse to answer, i will break
one of your fingers."
"You don't have the guts," the old man replied, but she could see in his
eyes he wasn't completely sure of that.
"Do not test me," she growled. "Now..what is your connection to the Consortium?"
The old man didn't answer. Chas'naH yanked his finger sharply upward, the
bone breaking with a satisfying snap. the old man screamed. His blue skin
went pale and for a moment she thought he may pass out on her.
"Bitch" he groaned, panting weakly.
"Indeed" she agreed, grabbing onto another finger. "Now talk. I want to
know who you are in all of this, about the consortium, about
Palanar..everything. Tell me old man, because after your fingers it will be
your wrist..then both your arms."
The old man wheezed and whimpered in pain as he opened his mouth to speak...
============================================================
Consortium Base
Xerkos IV
Stardate 9910.22
The old man wheezed and groaned in pain, then looked up at Chas in
contempt. "My connection to the Consortium? I AM the Consortium you fool. I
am what this organization calls the Chief Executive Officer...CEO. I command
the entire operation."
"And Palanar is your son?" Chas'naH demanded.
"The son I never knew I had," he snarled. "Until five years agoi. He had
been searching for me much of his adult life. When he finally found me and I
learned my ex-wife had betrayed me by not telling me of his existence, I was
enraged. I thought once he knew about me and my criminal organization he
would have nothing more to do with me...but it was quite the opposite."
The CEO proceeded to tell Chas the same story Jaegar had told Sortha about
the secret Federation organization called Omega Solution, developed to
inflict payback on the Cardassians. The same organization the Federation
eventually had to turn on and destroy to keep it from committing genocide.
"I was one of the leaders of Omega. An operative for Section 31 since the
time I was 22 years old," the elderly Andorian said sadly. "And then the
Federation turned on me...turned on my group. They tried to destroy us, and
they would have succeeded...but unlike Section 31, Starfleet Intelligence
isn't know for being very throuough. I survived, as did two of my collegues.
We left the ruined base here on Xerkos and went into hiding for awhile.
Evetually, we decided on a future course of action...we would use our
criminal contacts and create a new crime syndicate.
"We worked hard and brought together our old criminal contacts under one
roof. As we grew in size and strength, I was named CEO and we created a
hirearchy based on the leadership of a business conglomerate, with a board of
directors. Just in recent years the Consortium became powerful enough to be
taken seriously. We built a name for ourselves and we were finally able to go
head to head with the likes of the Orion Syndicate.
"That's when Palanar found me. At first I was going to ignore him and let
him think I was the wrong man, but I couldn't deny him what he had sought for
so long," the old man said. "When I told him I was his father, I told him of
the Consortium. At first he nearly turned his back on me...considered taking
me in. But the knowledge of how the Federation betrayed me and the rest of
Omega Solution hit him hard. He researched for some time and dug up some
damaging information through his position at Starfleet Intelligence which
confirmed what I had told him. He wanted to leave Starflet to join me...but I
convinced him he was more useful to me in Starfleet Intelligence than here.
"When we learned of Shadow Ops, headed by the two men primarily
responsible for betraying Omega, my son's mission became clear...he had to
get himself involved in Shadow Ops and work against Jaegar and Sorvek to
bring about their demise. Then, we decided to have him take control of Shadow
Ops with them out of the way. The plan was perfect...the Consortium would
have controlled Shadow Operations," the old man grinned and nodded his head
in delight, "My ultimate revenge."
"You know that won't happen now," Chas snarled.
"I am resigned to that fact. Too much has gone wrong. The chance of
Starfleet not being suspcious of Palanar if he comes out of this are
slim...but the damage has been done," the old man said. "Soon, Ticonderoga
and Fearless will be destroyed and Erik Jaegar will be dead. My time is also
soon up...I have Emtharex's Syndrome. A fatal, incurable Andorian disease.
When I die...Palanar will take over for me. That is his destiny now."
"Unlikely," Chas grinned.
"So what do you want Cha'naH?" the CEO asked. "Latinum? I can arrange to
make you quite wealthy. Do you wish to return to the Klingon military? I have
contacts there who owe me favors...I could get you back in. Name your price,
woman...and be quick about it."
END TRANSMISSION
Captain Rick Tafner
USS Ticonderoga, bridge Dragonslayer
Stardate 9911.02
Rick tapped some commands and opened a channel to the Ticonderoga and
Dara's face appeared on the screem.
"Captain, good to see you'r well" she said and Rick could see in her eyes
that she must have been put under a tremendous amount of stress.
"Good to see you are well too, what is the Ticonderoga's status ?" Rick
then asked as that question had burned in him all the time and finally the
moment had come and this would also let the Orion cruiser's bridge know they
were right on their tail as the communcation signal should be easily picked
up and located back to their afterstern.
============================================================
Commander Dara Ilia
Ticonderoga Bridge
Stardate 9911.02
"We've been beat up bad," I said to Tafner. "We've had heavy damage to
our shields and several hull breeches. We would be toast right now if we
hadn't found the beacon left on the ship so Palanar could fire those phased
torpedos they had." I ran a hand through my hair before continuing.
"We lost Draco, he's dead. He turned on us when Palanar made his escape.
Palanar beamed my children and Colonel Williams' daughter into the battle pod
and was holding them as hostages, demanding our surrender in exchange for
their lives. I refused."
"Apparently Draco helped the children escape..but he was mortally wounded
in the process. He died in sickbay a short time ago."
I couldn't read the expression on Tafner's face. I didn't see much
remorse or sadness there at the news of Draco's demise. I wasn't particularly
sad myself. I was grateful for his help to my children, but he had after all
been a traitor. I saw my thoughts reflected in Tafner's gaze.
"Very well," Tafner said. "Anything else?"
I shook my head. "Just that we're in no shape to go into battle
again..we're going to have to stay cloaked and repair the best we can for
now. The ships gonna need a few weeks in drydock when we manage to get home I
think. If there's anything we can do let us know..but granted its not much in
our current state."
Tafner nodded. "we'll keep you informed. Dragonslayer out."
The transmission ended and I sat back in my seat. I was exhausted and
stressed. I wanted so badly to go back to my quarters, lay down and rest
while I nursed Kedanya. But that would have to wait.
I opened a channel to Tajel and made sure he and the others were all
right. He sounded calm but a bit distracted. I told him to give Kedanya a
bottle from the replicator program Dara-3, which was a special program that I
had programmed the composition of my milk into in cases when I couldn't feed
her myself. He said he'd take care of it and I closed the connection.
I rubbed my eyes and glanced at O'Neill. "So how is our status? We any
less screwed then we were a few minutes ago?" I tried to make it as a joke
but I sounded too tired.
=============================================================
Lt. Commander Jeff O'Neill
USS Ticonderoga, Bridge
Stardate 9911.02
Jeff was in a conversation with one of the repair crews, as Dara
interupted. "So
how is our status? We any less screwed then we were a few minutes ago?" Jeff
told the ensign to hold on a minute, ans swirled around in his chair, facing
Commander Ilia.
"I shut down the battlepod, and rerouted all energy to the cloaking. I
have dispatched repair teams throughout the ship, to get those hull breaches
fixed. They can't do much more than make sure the emergency forcefields are
kept in place. Warpspeed is also out of the question. The structural
integrity of the nacelle is compromised. One impulse reactor is damaged, but
operational. I am working to get the shields fixed. Life support, weapons and
all critical systems still functional an reliable. But I would prefer to stay
out of battle at this moment."
Dara nodded, and Jeff turned back to the console. He sighed, and rubbed
his temples. This mission was taking it's toll, once again. He thought of Kin.
What was she doing right now ? Damn, how he missed her. Jeff pushed the
thoughts aside. This wasn't the moment to think about relations.
It was his job to keep the Ticonderoga in one piece.
=============================================================
Captain Rick Tafner
USS Ticonderoga, bridge Dragonslayer
Stardate 9911.02
Rick silently listened to Dara's report untill she mentione dDraco's dead
and a stab went right through his chest.
He hated Draco but he hated it more to loose a teammember and he knew that
somehow, Krystall would reflect that as one of Rick's actions against him as
Dara continued and told that Draco had turned against athem and proven to a
traitor. This hurt even more, this then would be the second time he was
betrayed but he tried to keep his emotions under control but he almost knew
that he didn't show any remorse as should be expected from a captain that lost a
member of his crew.
He then let Dara finish her story and he knew that Dara really had to make
some tough decisions and handled very well, especially when she refused to turn
over the ship as that would have resulted in a disaster and he felt a deep respect
for the woman who was willing to sacrifice her children for the greater cause
and stored that information as important.
Comm then was closed and Rick looked at Jamie
"That son of a bitch really had all this planned wll ahead that he even
had Draco involved in all of this" he muttered and jamie nodded in agreement
while they watched the approaching Orion light cruiser that was captured by
two of Jaeger's people.
=============================================================
Lt. Jamie T. Marcus
USS Dragonslayer
Stardate 9911.02
Jamie felt much better after the first aid from Captain Tafner. She'd
suffered a concussion in her fight with that Consortium witch. Her dizziness
had subsided mostly although she still felt sleepy. Her whole body felt
bruised and she looked forward to when she'd be able to get some R&R...maybe
in a nice hot springs holodeck scenario. In the meantime she was enjoying
taunting the Ferengi vessel, flying in and out of phase around it. Whenever
they were about to lock, she'd phase out, frustrating the Ferengi captain.
Too bad they didn't have any torpedoes left. It had been fun dropping off
that torpedo in the Orion light cruiser.
"Lieutenant Marcus, what is the status of Dragonslayer" Captain Tafner
demanded.
"Sir. We are cloaked and under phase. Port and starboard warp engines
at 98% efficiency, all twelve reactors are online and operational. Shields
at 100%. Torpedo bays empty. Our two type VII pulse phaser emitters are
online, operational and fully charged. Tactical situation: Palanar's heavy
cruiser is immobile and boarded. It appears Fearless has destroyed their
targeting capabilities, it looks like they won't be firing at us Sir.
Captain Kostov's light cruiser has returned but appears to be heavily
damaged. It looks like she took out the other light cruiser that was chasing
her. The Ferengi Marauder......the Ferengi Maraauder has just jumped to warp
and is leaving the area. We are receiving a signal from Fearless."
"Dragonslayer" Sortha began, "Captain Tafner, would you be so kind as to
deal with as many of those shuttles as you can. Disable them if possible,
destroy them otherwise. Fearless with retrieve your people here and keep an
eye on Palanar. I'm sending the Fearless' Captain's yacht under command of
Lieutenant Commander Brynaziir to assist you. It has cloak capabilities.
The two of you should be able to take out quite a few of those Consortium
troops leaving the planet. Sortha out."
Jamie looked at Captain Tafner for the next orders.
============================================================
Tajel
Dara and Jahkar's Quarters
Stardate 9911.02
Tajel picked up the bottle from the replicator and walked over to the
couch, where Becky was holding Kedanya. He sat down next to her. "You want to
feed her?"
Becky's expression brightened. "Sure"
Girls always went nuts for babies, Tajel thought. He handed her the
bottle and tried to instruct her how to position his little sister the right
way. When Becky seemed to be a little confused he said, "Here, like this.."
He leaned over his sister and close to Becky to adjust Kedanya in her arms
into the right position. As he did this his leg pressed against hers and
Tajel felt a jolt that almost instantly caused a rather uncomfortable
physical state. He tried to ignore it, hoping Becky wouldn't notice it
either. That was all he needed.
It also didn't help that her scent...the mixture of sweat and perfume
coming off of her was enticing as hell. He did his best to block it out as he
got Kedanya positioned and then quickly..and with great reluctance..pulled away.
Becky gave Kedanya the bottle, keeping most of her attention on the baby.
Tajel was glad for that. He felt odd and shaky all over from having been near
her and he was afraid if she looked at him she would immediately know. Worse
yet, she might laugh at him.
The thought occurred to him that his brithday was being missed due to his
mother's duties yet again. he was now officially eleven and due to all the
chaos there had not so much has been a single 'happy birthday'. He knew his
mother hand't forgotten..she NEVER forgot stuff like that..it was just how
hectic everything was. He knew that after this was over, they would have some
sort of celebration, and his mother as always would feel guilty about having
missed celebrating yet another birthday on time.
"Tajel?" Becky asked. He turned to face her and was looking right into
her eyes. He tried not to swallow hard.
"Yeah?" he managed.
"You ok? You seemed kinda spaced"
Tajel shook his head. "Nah i'm fine..was just thinking about how my
birthday got missed again."
"Your birthday? Well, happy birthday!" Becky smiled and Tajel thought he
could die happy at that moment.
"Thanks," he managed, looking away from her. He didn't want her to see
how nervous her presence was making him. "We're probably gonna have a party
after this is all over..you wanna come?"
Tajel was distinctly grateful that his Cardassian physiology prevented
him from being able to blush as he waited for her reply..
============================================================
Rebecca Williams
Dara & Jahkar's Quarters
Stardate 9911.02
"You want me to come?" Beak asked.
"Well, sure, I guess," he stammered, "that way you can play with Kedanya
some more."
"Oh yeah. Sure, I'll be there."
============================================================
Tajel
Jahkar and Dara's quarters
Stardate 9911.03
Tajel felt his heart leap..of course he had gotten Becky to come by
bribing her with Kedanya, but..it would give him his chance to get to know
her better..and get her to notice him as more than just some kid.
He would ask his father what he should do. He often wished he was nore
like Jahkar, with his rugged features and muscular build. He'd seen the way
women looked at him..when his mother was not looking, of course..in most
circles his mother's jealousy towards Jahkar was well known and it was never
good to anger a superior officer.
Tajel often thought that he himself was ugly. He hated his rough grey
Cardassian skin. He wished he were full Bajoran, with the soft ivory
complexion his mother had. He couldn't grow facial or body hair. He had
always admired's Jahkar's beard, how much more masculine it made him look. He
wondered dismally why any female, especially a pretty one like Becky, would
want him.
But he had to give it a shot. He'd ask Jahkar what to do to get a woman
to notice you. Discreetly, of course..his mom would freak if she found out he
was asking questions about getting girls.
END TRANSMISSION
Captain Sortha
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.03
"Sir, we've got more company" Ensign Tomok said from tactical.
"On screen" Sortha ordered. The tactical display showed the Ferengi
Marauder had returned and was harassing the Dragonslayer. Off to one side
Captain Kostov's captured light cruiser was approaching. It was heavily
damaged, apparently they had gotten in a fight with the remaining Orion light
cruiser. At even odds, it must have been a close battle. Kostov's
commandeered ship looked like swiss cheese but was still under power, and
heading back toward Fearless. They must have lost warp Sortha mused.
The Ferengi Marauder was playing hide and seek with the Dragonslayer who
phased in and out of cloak. Sortha wondered what Tafner was up to. "Open
a channel to that Ferengi" Sortha ordered. Soon he was answered by a
disgusting looking Ferengi who was missing half a lobe off one ear. "What
do you want hu- ohhhh liz-zarrrd?" the Ferengi asked smugly.
"How about the other half of your ear Ferengi" Sortha growled. "Leave,
there iss no profit in thisss" Sortha stated attempting to appeal to the
Ferengi's baser instincts. "I'm not leaving thisss empty handed" the Ferengi
stated, Palanar owes me a great deal and I mean to collect something.
"You may be leaving without a hand!" Sortha said contemptuously. "Helm
set a course for that Ferengi vessel."
"Aye aye sir." the helmsman replied.
"Looks like they're bugging out" Tomak said from tactical as the Ferengi
jumped to warp again. "Sir there are multiple craft attempting to leave
the planet, all small, mostly shuttles."
"Dragonslayer" Sortha began, "Captain Tafner, would you be so kind as to
deal with as many of those shuttles as you can. Disable them if possible,
destroy them otherwise. Fearless will retrieve your people here and keep an
eye on Palanar. Sortha out." Then turning to Thoraz, "Would you like to
take the Captain's yacht and hunt some shuttles down....then perhaps see if
you can locate Chas'Nah on the planet? Hmmm?" Sortha asked endulging Thoraz.
He knew he was concerned about Chas, the Gorn didn't need to be telepathic
to sense that. Besides, the more Consortium scum that were destroyed the
better.
"Yes sir!" Thoraz responded eagerly, appreciative of Sortha's rare good humor.
"Ssss take a full flight crew with you and a security squad, there might
sstil be ssome sstraglers on the planet." Thoraz turned to go, but turned
back at teh turbo lift. "Thank you sir...." Then he was gone. Sortha
continued his scans of the stricken heavy cruiser. He'd fired several more
rounds of precise phaser fire into the crippled vessel, targeting fire
control and propulsion. The ship was effectively a floating hulk. If the
information on the Consortium wasn't so valuable, Sortha wouldn't even bother
capturing the Admiral and risking lives. He'd simply blow him out of the
stars and be done with it. Come out of there you wily old bastard Sortha
thought. He couldn't help but sense that the Admiral was up to something
that was no good.
============================================================
Lt Gregory Durham
Captured Orion ship
Stardate 9911.03
It all happened pretty fast, within a few moments, the consortium fleet
had been reduced to a few ships and Greg noticed that the two orions they
had taken prisoner looked shaken by the sight but a sense of relief went
through them as Greg made the remark: "that gives you two some breathing
room, when they continue like this, there will nobody be left to get your asses"
"Lay in interception coarse with the corvette on our left" Kostov then
requested and Greg started initialising the weaponsystems while their ship
shifted coarse
and started diving towards the side and too late, the corvette's crew saw their
attack as they had just jumped to warp after breaking off the attack on the Fearless.
From the side, a full volley of torpedo's sped towards them and as the
first few impacts were dampened by their shields, the last ones went through
ripping open half of the corvette and Kostov gave away a dark look when she hissed.
"Turn right, dive up and divert all phasers to aim for the midsection"
With a smooth curve, their ship stormed towards the corvette who then
suddenly dropped out of warp and fell back fast.
Their ship missed target and instead got treated with a volley of
torpedo's from the damaged corvette in the afterstern from which two
penetrated and completely destroyed the lower after decks.
"Status" Kostov yelled as sparks were filling the bridge as several
systems suddenly overloaded and lights shimmered.
Greg flew over his console, trying to get a descent report. "Aft shields
down, rear deck 1 through 5 decompressed, level 8 emergency shields are up.
Engineering is not compromised, power at 80% and comming back up. All weapon
systems in the afterstern mailfunctioning.
"Life support has dipped but back on-line but can't handle much more.
Inertial dampening system also comprimised, only running at 50%. All system
resources are diverted to the bridge, all lower decks are inoperable." Greg
reported.
"Get those shields back on-line, we are sitting ducks like this" Kostov cursed
while shifting uncomfortably in her seat.
"No option, all shield emitters are down, they must have known the weak spot,
we were lucky that the last torpedo missed engineering, it was a clean attack
and under less stressed conditions they would have blown us to oblivian" Greg
said back and Anestasia's face was twisted in anger.
"OK, that means we should always stay in the attack position, one shot in
the back and we're history" she concluded.
"Tactical, from this point on your own life is at stake, pursuit that
Corvette and get him down... NOW" she said.
The green skinned Orion just nodded and turned to his console. Greg saw
that they made a few sharp curves, turns and some pretty impressive
maneuvers, following the corvette who desperately tried to get a lock on
their back but the tactical turned out to be skilled and easily turned each
maneuver in his favor, bringing them closer and closer and then he howled.
"Now you die. All power to the front phaser emitters" he almost screamed
and Greg quickly followed the request
"Fire !!" Kostov then said when she saw that their tactic had brought
them directly in front of their left side that was already compromised by
the first volley and the beams slammed into their side and ripped the corvett
open like a tin can. Cascading explosions then occured, indicating that the
corvette saw his last light and a few lifepods immediately left the ship.
Just seconds after they passed the site, the ship exploded, taking along a
few lifepods and slingshooting away a few others. Then tactical altered their
course slightly and started shooting directly at those pods.
"Stop" Kostov then demanded "they will be picked up by starfleet after this
is over.
"My ass is on the line here" the Orion hissed and shot another one as greg
drew his weapon and stunned him.
"Pitty, he proved being a reasonable tactical officer" he said and took
over tactical himself while pushing the green body off the chair onto the
ground.
The helm officer gave him a dirty look and Greg turned his chair towards him
and lend over a bit.
"Is there anything... bothering you" Greg sneered with a mean grin.
"Enough Greg" Anastasia then interfered "we might need him later, after
that he will be all yours"
Greg's face then split into a huge grin as he turned back to his console and
in his eye corner he saw that the orion was turning a little pale by the idea
that he should face Greg in a hand-to-hand, he probably has seen Greg's
action as he had ripped off that other Orion's arm.
"Return to Xerkos VI, I wanna have a status report about the situation at
hand so we won't run into problems there.
A few commands, long range readouts and analasis learned Greg that only one
Orion heavy cruiser was left behind but he could not trace any other ship and
feared that the battle had been ended in the enemies favor as suddnly the
Fearless appeared out of cloak and instead of attacking, just ran by, taking
some beating from the cruiser.
He then also picked up a comminucation signal from two unidentified point
but he meant to be able to pinpoint the first point to be right behind the
afterstern and it appeared to be Starfleet encoding and Greg's hope raised a
little, hoping it would mean that at least one ship is still cloaked and
operational.
"Captain, one Orion heavy cruiser left, Fearless still active but I missed
weapon activity, unknown status. I also picked up a communique from two
unknown points although it seems, one point is damn near to the cruiser's
afterstern, I presume the Ticonderoga is there with another ship, maybe that
mysterious vessel we briefly saw taking down the two Cardassian vessels" Greg
reported.
"Approach the scene and try to contact either the Ticonderoga or the
Fearless" Kostov said and sat back.
Greg tapped in some keys and opened first a channel to the Ticonderoga but
they didn't respond immediately and then he tried Fearless and a moment later, the
Gorn captain appeared on the viewscreen.
"Captain Kossstof.... glad to see you are still among us"
"What's the status" Kostov then asked.
============================================================
Consortium Mountain Base
Xerkos IV
Stardate 9911.04
Chas'naH remained hidden in a crevice on the face of the mountain as
shuttles and transports began to fly from the hidden hangar at the base of
the mountain.The Consortium was running like a pack of cowards.
The half-Klingon was awaiting transport off Xerkos, biding her time by
staying out of the way of the Consortium forces. Then, as she hid, she heard
the crunching of someone's heavy boots nearby on the rock.
She peered out and saw a huge Nausican carrying a battle axe in one hand
and scanning with a tricorder in the other. It was Reshkal, the Nausican who
had greeted her in her holding cell, right after her capture.
About the same time as she saw him, peering out from her tight hiding
spot, the big Nausican turned and looked in her general direction.
"Klingon mongrel! I have come to do what Palanar should have done in the
first place!" Reshkal snarled. "Come out and fight me, pretty one! I shall
make your death a glorious and honorable fate!"
END TRANSMISSION
Corporal Robert Pickering
Orion Battle Cruiser
9911.04
Robert watched at the Orions poured out from behind the holographic wall.
he didn't wait for a command. He knew it was kill or be killed. The New
Englander dropped to a knee and started firing, taking out the first two of
the enemy that rushed his position. Before he could fire a third shot, the
Orions, Nausicans and Klingons were close enough for hand to hand combat.
At that moment, Robert didn't even see Jahkar, Williams or the other
security personnel accompanying him on the boarding mission. His focus honed
in on the oncoming enemy. He used the body of the first Orion he shot as a
springboard and he dove into the oncoming force, tackling a Orion to the
ground. The two rolled around, each trying to get the advantage as
Consortium loyalists sped past the two. Robert hauled himself and the Orion
to their feet and pushed the enemy Backwards. As he rushed Robert, the
Yankee slammed the butt of his rifle into the jaw of the Orion. A large
crackle followed as he slumped to the ground in pain.
Robert spun and dropped his rifle as a Nausican attempted to run him
through with a nasty looking dagger. He caught the lunge, grabbed the
Nausican by the neck and backside and drove him into a computer
terminal...sending a shower of sparks in all directions.
Two more Orions lunged forward towards Robert. He crouched low and seized
the knife the dead Nausican tried to kill him with. Quickly he flung it in
the direction of his assailants and watched it sink into the chest of the
lead Orion. As the second rushed onward, Robert spun around from his
crouched position and sweep kicked the enemy, sending him sprawling to the
ground. Robert pounced onto him, only to be thrown backwards into a wall.
The Orion drove his fist hard across Robert's face, causing blood to shoot
out of his mouth. Robert struggled to get up, driving his knee into the
attacker's groin. As he seized the Orion by the head and prepared to head
butt him, he saw Jahkar grappling with another Orion who had obviously tried
to kill him.
The New Englander snarled and drove his knee into his attacker's head. He
watched as the Orion fell backwards. Robert withdrew his Type II Phaser and
began to fire in the direction of the oncoming attackers. Suddenly, a second
team of Starfleet officers appeared from the direction Jahkar's team had come
from. It was Commander Dyer and his team from the Fearless.
The reinforcement team moved in quickly, forcing the attackers to
surrender. Once again, the assault teams regrouped. Robert picked up his
rifle and wiped the blood from his face. His jaw ached. After the survivors
from the Dragonslayer fell in with Commander Dyer's team, Robert spoke.
"The bridge has got to be less than 100 meters away. I think it's time we
knock on the front door and see whose home."
============================================================
Lieutenant Colonel Lance Williams
Orion Heavy Cruiser
Stardate 9911.04
Williams and Pickering were ducked on one corner of the hallway, Jahkar
and three of the security officers on the other. Alternatingly, they were
shooting at
the group of hostiles that had them pinned down.
Williams peeked around the corner, spraying the hallway and the cargo
containers with phaser fire.
"Can't we all just be friends?" he cried out. A green head popped up and
Williams shot it in the face.
"No, we can't!" he grinned at Pickering, and Jahkar fired into the midst of
the defending Consortium troops.
Behind them, the officer from the Fearless smiled. "I see why we love
marines!"
"Glad to bring a smile to your face." Jahkar replied.
Pickering and one of the security officers dropped the last of the
Consortium troops and they advanced down the hallway.
Three minute later, they were at the hatchway to the bridge.
"Pickering, pop it." Jahkar ordered, stepping back with Williams and two
of the security people to cover the hatchway as Pickering placed two small
explosive charges against the plate.
There was a bright flash and a 'pop' as the charges ignited and the doorway
fell to the floor.
"Knock knock, anyone home?"
============================================================
Sgt. Jahkar
Orion Heavy Cruiser
Stardate 9911.05
Phaser and disruptor fire began almost immediately after Pickering blew
the door to the bridge. Jahkar and Pickering both tossed in flash-bang
grenades and after they detonated, there were some screams.
Williams nodded to his two Marines and they prepared to go in. Jahkar
readied his M75, signaled to Pickering he would go first, and then rolled
through the blown hatchway.
Inside, he saw the battle damaged bridge, with carbon scoring on some the
consoles, bundles of fiber-optic wiring hanging from the ceiling, and shards
of duraplastic from the shattered consoles littering the floor.
Nearby, two Orions lay on the floor holding their shattered eardrums and
moaning in pain. They'd been close enough to take the brunt of the grenades.
Jahkar stunned both and moved behind the nearest console.
Two disruptor shots rained down on his location. More than one defender
on the opposite side of the bridge was firing. Jahkar poked his rifle around
the corner and leveled two shots at the Consortium goons...and caught a
fleeting glimpse of blue.
One of the two gunners was Admiral Palanar.
"Admiral Palanar! You and your crew are ordered to throw down your
weapons and surrender!" Jahkar shouted as more disruptor fire came. By now,
Pickering had entered the bridge while Williams fired from the open doorway
covering him. The corporal made it to another bridge station and began
firing. He stirred up at least two more Consortium thugs as he ran...both
hiding in a doorway off the port side of the bridge.
So far there were at least four. Jahkar doubted there would be many more
than that. The bridge wasn't big enough and they'd killed so many so far.
"Would that be the good sergeant?" Palanar's voice came in reply. "It is
most unfortunate you have nothing to return to Ticonderoga for...I killed
your children and wife before I left there."
Jahkar bit the inside of his lip and growled. Bastard. Tafner had been
speaking with what sounded like IIia before they beamed over here...he knew
Palanar had to be lying. Still, the fact he was taunting Jahkar this way just
angered the Marine even more.
"It is over Palanar! No more games!" Commander Dyer's voice barked from
the doorway. "Combined forces from Fearless and Ticonderoga are here! You
don't have a chance! None of you do!"
It was silent a moment. Just then, one of the attackers hiding in the
doorway to what was probably the captain's office or a conference room,
stepped out into the open and dropped his weapon. It was a human. Behind him,
another human pleaded for him not to surrender.
A shot erupted from Palanar's position, where he sought cover with an
Orion solider. The surrendering human died in his shoes. His friend cried
something like: "Why'd you kill him?" And he to was gunned down by Palanar or
his Orion companion.
While they were occupied with the rebellious humans, Jahkar sprang into
action. Ducking low he ran across the aft section of the bridge, heading
toward starboard where Palanar and the Orion hid. Halfway there, disruptor
shots began to hiss past him.
He spotted Palanar and the Orion, both hiding behind the ship's ops
console, which was over toward the starboard side, at the fore section of the
bridge. Both were shooting at him relentlessly. Jahkar fired his own weapon
rapidly, his shots pounding the console they hid behind sending pieces flying
and sparks spewing.
Pickering also opened fire, his shots surpressing the two Consortium
gunners long enough for Jahkar to make it almost all the way to them.
"Where's he going?" Pickering muttered as Jahkar broke into an all out
sprint, leaving behind several opportunities for cover, and charged the place
where Palanar and the Orion were hunkered down.
Palanar saw him coming, fired one shot wildly, then ducked for cover. The
Orion rose, however, and drew his big knife as Jahkar bounded up and over the
console...body slamming the Orion backwards onto the floor of the bridge.
Both the Marine and the Orion hit the deck, grappling with each other, and
skidded several meters before coming to a halt where they began to grapple.
Palanar popped up and shot at Pickering, then ran and dove toward an open
doorway leading into another side room off the bridge. He was trying to get
away once again....
END TRANSMISSION
Lieutenant Commander Thoraz Brynaziir
USS Fearless / Captain's Yacht
Stardate 9911.05
"Thank you Sir...." Then he was gone.
Once Thoraz was in the turbolift he tapped his Comm badge. "Captain's Yacht Flight Crew report
to the Yacht for immediate launch. Scramble Alpha Niner Two. .... Security Team Alpha report to
the Captain's Yascht immediately. Thoraz out." Thoraz thought of Chas on the planet, hoping she
was alive. It was time for payback - for Admiral Jaeger and for Chas.
As soon as Thoraz was on the Yacht he began issuing orders. "OK people, we've got some fleeing
shuttles to stop and personnel to rescue. I want engines charged, disengage docking clamps as
soon all team members are onboard. I want sensor scans and minute updates- just call them out.
Charge weapons and prepare to fire at will. I want an open comm channel to the Dragonslayer at
all times. Let's do this right people."
Thoraz had the finest crew for this mission. He knew they could handle the situation
efficiently. Security Officers, be prepared for either boarding actions or planetside rescue.
Any questions?"
No one answered, each member busy preparing either the yacht of themselves for the mission.
"Ready to engage, Sir."
"Take us out Lt Dean."
"Aye Sir," the pilot replied.
The captain's yacht then disengaged from its docking port on the bottom of the Fearless'
saucer section and roared off toward Xerkos IV
============================================================
Lieutenant JG Chas'naH
Xerkos IV
Stardate 9911.05
Chas'naH rose to her feet. "Me unarmed and with a useless arm, and you with an axe?" she
growled. "Hardly fair, is it? Put that down and fight like an honorable warrior."
The Nausican leered. "No one has ever accused me of having honor, pretty 4one. So do you
wish to give up now and allow me to kill you quickly?"
Chas'naH slipped the antidote vial into her pokcet, hoping it would not break in the course
of the battle. She looked down at her wounded arm and wished wearily she hadn't gotten shot.
She could take a Nausicaan when she was in top condition, but this was far from top condition.
She was tired and she was wounded. And other than the disruptor she had no weapons. And she
would not use the disruptor unless he had to. It was not honorable in this situation.
The Nausicaan leered at her, looking her lean muscular body over. "That horny Yridian had
his good judgement blinded by his base needs..not that i can blame him" The ugly creature grinned. "Why don't we make this easy? Come to me now..and i will pleasure you..and then cut your throat. I will send you to heaven before i send you to hell."
Chas'naH felt a bit sick from the extent of disgust she felt. She stepped towards him slowly,
holding the disgust down as she tried to look..willing.
The Nuasicaan grinned. By Kahless he was ugly, she thought. "Thats it my dear..come to me.."
He grabbed ahold of Chas as soon as she was within reach and pulled her against him. He was
groping her and she could feel he was excited. I'm going to be sick, she thought dismally.
Luckily she had no intention of going through with this.
He had set down the axe when he began fondling her. Now Chas, pulled tightly against him,
had a perfect shot. She leaned close to him and whispered in his ear, "I'd sooner mate with a
targh". Before he could respond, she had driven her knee powerfully up into his crotch. A
distinct crunching noise was heard.
The nausican collapsed to the ground, groaning in pain and holding himself. Chas'naH grabbed
the axe and stood over him, poised to strike. She brought the axe down..and stopped just as the
blade touched the skin of his neck.
She tossed the axe aside and knelt down by him. "I could kill you..but i have a better idea,"
she growled. She pulled a knife out of the scabbard the nausican was wearing. without a moments
hesitation she went to work. He screamed..but he was too weak from shock to fight back.
Chas'naH walked away a few minutes later. She tossed something wrapped in a bloody piece of
the nausicaan's clothing aside, quite a distance away from the man who was laying on the ground
in a spreading poll of blood under his lower body. He might live, if he did not bleed to death..
but he would never find the need to have a woman again.
Chas'naH made sure there was a comfortable distance between her and the bleeding man before
she sat down again, holding the nausican's axe on her lap. She patted the vial in her pocket
and waited to be found.
END TRANSMISSION
Corporal Robert Pickering
Orion Battle Cruiser
Stardate 9911.07
Robert ducked down quickly as Palanar fired a shot towards him. The young
Marine popped back up just in time to see Palanar fleeing towards a side
room. Shots rang out as the two Consortium gunners tried to take out
Pickering. The Yankee hit the floor and rolled, popping up again on the
gunners' flank. Not seeing him, Robert opened fire, eliminating the last of
the bridge resistance force.
Instantly, Robert began pursuit of Palanar, hopping over Jahkar and the
Orion, who were rolling around on the floor, trying to kill each other. He
slammed his body up against the wall adjacent to the entrance way to the side
room. He opened the door via a control panel and tossed in a flash-bang
grenade. There was a burst of light, a boom and then smoke. The Yankee took
a deep breath and entered, rifle aiming directly ahead. Smoke wafted in the
room, limiting his vision. Robert quickly activated the PIS targetting
system of his M-75. As he waited for it to locate a target, he spoke.
"Palanar!! This is Corporal Robert Pickering, Marine Ops Force Alpha!!
This ship has been secured by the Ticonderoga and Fearless!! Your crew are all
dead or captured! You are ORDERED to surrender now damnit!! Lay flat on the
ground with your face down and your hands behind your head. Interlace your fingers
and spread your legs! This is your only warning Palanar!! I will shoot to kill if
you do not comply!!"
=============================================================
Orion Cruiser
Office located off the bridge
Stardate 9911.07
As Pickering stood with weapon ready, the smoke began to clear from the
grenade and he viewed the contents of the office. He slowly began to realize
Admiral Palanar was nowhere to be found.
"He's gone!" Pickering shouted, looking for possible exits out of the
room. He looked behind the desk, his rifle trained to shoot at anything he
saw, and he saw a hatch in the floor, now closed.
Presumably, that's where the wily admiral had gone...
=============================================================
Sgt. Jahkar
Orion ship
Stardate 9911.08
Jahkar and the Orion crewman grappled on the deck as Pickering ran past
them and into the room where Palanar had fled. The Orion was strong, almost
stronger than Jahkar.
Staring into each other's faces, teeth gritted and tension building, the
two warriors fought over a single weapon. The Orion had drawn a dagger as
Jahkar took him down, and the Marine was now struggling on top of the Orion
to keep from being stabbed.
Jahkar struggled hard and managed to twist the hand holding the weapon
far enough to one side that the Orion released the blade. He then punched the
felled Orion twice in the face and got up, dragging the green-skinned alien
along with him.
The Orion punched Jahkar as they both got to their feet, but the Marine
shrugged off the blow. He retorted by punching the Orion square on the jaw,
and then in the gut. The Orion staggered and Jahkar grabbed him and slammed
him against the nearest console -- tactical.
As he held the Orion face down to the console, Williams and some of the
Ticonderoga security officers stormed up and leveled weapons at the captured
Orion. The man instantly stopped struggling.
Jahkar began to secure the prisoner and heard Pickering yelling, "He's gone!"
Palanar...that slippery bastard, Jahkar thought as he placed a set of
riot cuffs on the captive Orion. He was about to push the prisoner to his
knees for the security detail to deal with, when he noticed some unusual
readings from the tactical console.
He studied the readings as the security personnel took the Orion prisoner
away, and then he gasp aloud. Nearby, Commander Dyer and the Fearless squad
were consulting with Williams and Pickering about a game plan for going after Palanar.
"Colonel...Commander...we have a problem," Jahkar said. "There is an
unknown weapon building up to detonation in the torpedo bay. It appears to be
some kind of torpedo set to overload."
Dyer stepped up beside Jahkar and looked at the readout. "That's not a
standard photon or quantum. What is it?"
"Possibly the weapon Palanar brought with him on Ticonderoga," Jahkar
stated. "He beamed it over with him onto this ship when he escaped
Ticonderoga. It is some kind of subspace weapon designed to destroy phased ships."
Dyer cringed, "Subspace weapons were banned by the Khitomer Accords."
Jahkar, Pickering and Williams had already heard this statement before, on
Ticonderoga, in unison the Marines replied, "We know."
"A weapon like that would cause more than just damage to a phased
ship...it would open a huge subspace tear in this system," Dyer said. "How
long until it detonates?"
Jahkar rechecked the readings, "Looks like about five minutes."
"We could beam out of here and have all the ships go to warp," Dyer said.
"Then it's just Palanar and this ship caught in the blast."
"Except Ticonderoga is without warp power right now," Jahkar muttered.
"Even with Fearless towing it with a tractor beam, we wouldn't make it out in time."
Dyer sighed. "Options?"
"I can shut it down," Jahkar stated, suddenly dumping most of his gear on
the deck, except for his mek'leth and M75. He then turned to Williams. "With
your permission, sir."
Williams gave him a nod, "Proceed."
Jahkar keyed the transporter controls and beamed himself from the bridge
to the ship's torpedo bay.
Once the Marine was gone, Dyer looked to Williams, "I'm going after
Palanar. You with me?"
Williams nodded and with Pickering and the security officers, they merged
with the Fearless' security team and headed off into the bowls of the ship to
find and capture Admiral Palanar.
=============================================================
Commander Michael Dyer
Orion Heavy Cruiser
Stardate 9911.07
Dyer signalled the five other Fearless Officer's to spread out. He put
away his phaser rifle, and traded it for a Type II personal phaser and a
rather strange looking gun. One of the pieces of equipment he had asked for,
was the new isolinear tag launcher. It had a limited capability, but if he
could get a clear shot at Palanar, it would be extremely valuable.
As they took the jefferies tube from under the office desk down into the
ship, he could sense someone close behind him, but didn't know which of the
Ticonderoga Marines it was. After a few seconds of climbing downward, he
could hear someone just ahead and out of site. The floor hatch was some sort
of alternative escape route or something. It didn't seem to pass by any
logical systems or anything. Dyer suspected it lead to an aft shuttle bay or
something with some sort escape device waiting for him.
After about 90 seconds of chasing the man through the bowels of the Orion
Cruiser Dyer broke through into an open space. As he suspected, a shuttle
bay of some sort. As he broke through, he dove and rolled to avoid the
phaser blast from Palanar's phaser.
Williams and Pickering were right behind Dyer and laid down a heavy
spread of fire. Dyer took the opportunity to circle around weaving through
stacks of containers, to try and out-flank the admiral.
During a lull in the fire, Palanar could be heard, "Three little
Marine's...now where oh where has the Commander gone."
"Right here you bastard!" Palanar swung around to see the Dyer level the
launcher at his chest and fire. As the tag made contact with Palanar, Dyer
tapped his comm badge, "Now Captain!"
The traitorous Palanar was swept away in the swirl of the Fearless'
transporter beam. Dyer began to make his way back through the ship to find
his men and go home....he looked at his chrono -- they had two minutes left
until the torpedo detonated. Hopefully Jahkar would be successful.
============================================================
USS Fearless
Near Xerkos VI
Stardate 9911.08
Sortha and Jaegar were on the bridge of Fearless monitoring the escaping
shuttles and the situation aboard the crippled Orion ship when a comm-line
from the brig suddenly opened.
"Captain," a security officer suddenly reported. "We just transported
Admiral Palanar aboard, courtesy of Commander Dyer and a well placed
isolinear tag. The admiral is contained in a cell. His weapons have all be
neutralized and he is not putting up a fight...your orders, sir?"
=============================================================
Ensign Cumae Sibyl
USS Ticonderoga
Stardate 9911.08
Things in Sickbay were going well. The inflow of casualties had dried up ten
minutes after the Ticonderoga had been towed to safety. Now as the bay was
starting to empty out Cumae found himself at a lose end. He had a more than
adequate medial team finishing up and after looking through the ex-doctor's
so called projects and finding nothing but wasted materials he was finding
unexpected null time. Leaving his office Cumae went to find Rebekah.
"Rebekah, everything in order?"
With a quick look at the other staff and at the PADD in her hand she
replied with "yes, everything is fine, we were rushed off our feet for a
while but it's all green now."
"Good" he replied, "I'm placing you in charge until I get back, I'm going
to the bridge to see if I can help with anything."
Rebekah broke out into a face-splitting smile, "yes sir!." She was obviously
pleased with her charge. Leaving a happy worker Cumae headed for the bridge.
Cumae was in a happy mood. Which was strange because he knew he had
nothing to be happy about. The Ticonderoga was close to ruins, a man he
respected had died and more than a few injuries he had dealt with earlier he
knew would be causing their owners quite a bit of pain for some time.
But despite that he felt good about the whole situation. Cumae wondered if
it was his telepathic senses telling him this was all going to end soon, he
didn't know, he didn't want to, the few minutes of happiness he was having
know was all he was wanting. Cumae silently wished the two repair crews he could
see hard at work good luck and instructed turbolift he had just entered to take
him to the bridge.
Stepping out of the lift Cumae was meet with a very busy picture. Everybody
on the bridge was doing something, men and women were all over the place
fixing that or doing this. He looked over to the Commander who was busy
reading through various reports. Cumae didn't feel he could interrupt so
finding a relatively quiet place along a wall Cumae looked to see if he could
help. Cumae could feel the wariness and the tension in the room, in fact it
stunk with it, he wondered how O'Neill put up with it.
With a smile on his face Cumae thought of a way he could help everyone.
Opening up his mind Cumae flooded the room with soothing and tranquil
thoughts, as Cumae's efforts washed over everyone in the room he could see
the faces of his fellow crew members start to relax a little. With an even
bigger smile Cumae leaned against the wall and let the happy thoughts flow.
=============================================================
Captain Rick Tafner and Jamie Marcus
USS Ticonderoga, bridge Dragonslayer
Stardate 9911.08
Rick's blood started to boil when he heard Sortha's voice sneering at him
to chase down the fleeing shuttles and he was about to step up and demand an
explanation for this strange behavior when Jamie stepped in.
"Dragonslayer will commence operations as directed, Dragonslayer out" she
said and cut the comm and Rick looked surprised at her.
"Lt. Marcus, this is the second time you interrupted me in a
conversation with Sortha. What the hell does this mean ?" he asked angrily.
"I saw the anger in your eyes sir, and thought you were about to say
something that could get you into trouble. Captain Sortha does have
seniority and is thus the commanding officer in the area. I was trying to
prevent you from saying something you might have regretted sir. It was not
my intention to dispute your orders sir, merely trying to keep my captain out
of harm's way. Sortha is a Gorn and sometimes the way he pronounces
words...well it comes out sounding harsh because he has difficulty
pronouncing S sounds. It was not his intention to offend. I am sure of
that" she explained and Rick looked at her for a moment and knew that Gorns
were not known for proper expression and decided to let the issue rest until
after the situation had calmed down and sat down again at the conn and layed
in an interception coarse for the first two vessels.
Jamie turned back to her task of piloting the Dragonslayer. She hadn't
served with Tafner long, but the man seemed very touchy. The look in his
eyes when Captain Sortha had ordered them to attack the fleeing shuttlecraft
had been disturbing. Tafner had seemed very upset.
The order had seemed logical to her- there was little Dragonslayer could
do at the moment, and Fearless had everything well enough in hand and could
support their marines on the Orion ship. She hadn't wanted to say anything
but Tafner had looked like he was really about to say something he might have
regretted. He had also seemed defensive the last time Sortha had talked to
her. That time he had asked her a direct question and she had only answered.
Tafner had gotten angry about that too.
She felt somewhat hurt by his attitude, but captains were captains and
there wasn't much she could do about it. She resolved to be on her guard
when around her new captain.
"Ready phasers" he said and the neared the first shuttle who was ready to
jump to warp.
"Phasers ready sir" Jamie reported.
"Decloak, fire all phasers" Rick ordered cool and Jamie let then have it.
The shuttle's shield collapsed after the second blast and cut right through
the hull. A cascading explosion followed and the Dragonslayer flew right through,
giving the second shuttle the same treatment, blowing it to oblivion. On his
screen, Rick saw that another vessel had been released from the Fearless and
was also attacking the fleeing consortium scum.
Rick fluidly let the dragonslayer make a curve to intercept another
convoy of shuttles. "Dragonslayer to Fearless yacht, I will take this side.
Please intercept the shuttles fleeing from the back of Xerkos IV."
"Aye aye sir" Lieutenant Commander Brynaziir replied from the Fearless vessel.
"Lt, go to phased cloak, prepare fore and stern phasers, let's go blast
some scum" he smirked and he set a direct frontal coarse towards the first
shuttle. In a convoy of fleeing shuttles that were using the strategy that
you can not kill them all and must pick a few out, giving others the chance
to flee but this time he would use it for his own advantage.
"Phasers ready" he heard from next to him.
"Be ready to decloak and fire" Rick warned as they sped towards the shuttles.
"Keep your hand at the cloak button in case we cannot penetrate through their
shields" Rick then added.
A moment later...
"Decloak !!, Fire!!" he ordered while he slightly altered the coarse,
making sure that the effect he wanted to create would be achieved. With a
high speed, the Dragonslayer rushed through the fleet, leaving a trail of
explosions and breaching warpcores. Along the line they had flew through,
the explosions started cascading and amplifying each other untill the whole
swarm of shuttles that had came from
Xerkos IV flew into their destruction without recieving a single blast
directly from the Dragonslayer.
"Cloak!! , cloak!!" Rick then shouted as they were about to be caught by the
explosions. Rick automatically held on to his console at the moment that the
explosions would have impacted but they were just in time and out of phase,
the explosions didn't have any effect on them but the outside view was tremendous.
It seemed as if everything happened in slowmotion. At first the screen
lit up in front of them and they could see wrecked parts speeding by untill
the screen went blank and sparks filled the bridge as most sensor systems
went off-line due to the overload.
Rick maneuvered the Dragonslayer out of the giant cloud of explosions and
tried to get the sensor systems back on-line.
"Status report" he then asked as he started to gather the ops and helm
part of that. Out loud he then stated "navigation systems off-line. Short,
mid and long-range scanners off-line. Communications blanked"
"Sir" Jamie responded "our scanners and sensors overloaded. Cause
unknown. It could be the strain of almost simultaneously tracking all of the
explosions in and out of phase, or a system defect. It's hard to tell for
sure now sir, at least not without further analysis.
Rick then thought it over for a moment. They were actually fit for
battle except they were deaf and blind at the moment. Then it struck him.
"Can you reroute communications to our beakon transmitter, at least we can
communicate with other ships in case we can not get the sensor array's back
on-line" Rick said "I will go into the mission module and see if I can get
anything done from there"
"I can open up the shuttle's viewport ablative covering and fly her
manually sir. At this range we can see the other ships visually. I wouldn't
mind a little open seat flying sir. I was on the Red squadron flight team
back at the Academy sir. I also think I can get partial sensors online by
rerouting our primary sensors through the targeting computer which is still
operational. That should at least give us short range sensors that will
allow us to see vessels, although we won't be able to get any detailed scans.
that'll take just a couple of minutes. Your orders sir?" Jamie asked her
hands poised over the tactical controls.
END TRANSMISSION
Lieutenant Colonel Lance Williams
Orion Heavy Cruiser
Stardate 9911.1
Williams smiled as he watched Palanars look of shock disappear in the transporter
shimmer, and nodded congrats to Dyer. Then he slapped his combadge.
"Williams to Jahkar. Report."
"Almost there, things good upside?"
"Yes, Palanar is now in Fearless' custody, and we need to go now."
"One more minute."
"Acknowledged. Williams out."
=============================================================
Captain Rick Tafner and Lieutenant Jamie Marcus
USS Dragonslayer
Stardate 9911.11
"Ok Lietenant, proceed" Rick said when Jamie explained her plan and it sounded
good. Jamie's hands flew over the tactical controls of the little ship. Soon, she had
linked the targeting computers into the ship's scanner control circuitry. Within seconds
they had partial short range sensors.
Jamie also opened the ship's viewports and she was greeted with the actual stars of space,
not some tactical representation or remote camera. Sensors showed that most of the shuttles
attempting to leave the planet had been destroyed in the chain explosion, but several remained.
They were dispersed and far apart.
Jamie brushed a stray strand of light brown hair out of her face and picked a target.
They'd probably only be able to get one more. They'd been out of action too long. She
keyed in on the largest vessel and gunned the Dragonslayer's engines to full impulse. The
inertial dampers strained as she heeled the sleek little ship over on it's belly and plunged
toward the southern pole of the planet.
She moved to intercept the other ship which looked as if it were attempting to go to warp.
'C'mon, just a few more seconds" she said under her breath as Dragonslayer tried to reach
the ship before it escaped the planet's gravity well and went to warp. Just as she was
getting close to firing range it went to warp. "Damn!" Jamie swore as the ship escaped from
her grasp. "Shall I track it and follow?" she asked Captain Tafner.
"No, let it go." Rick said with an edge to his voice. "Maybe there's something else
around here to destroy."
"Aye aye sir" Jamie said and brought the Dragonslayer up to an orbit around the planet's
equator. She scanned the area but it appeared that everyone had bugged out. The only
other ship she had on her scanners was Fearless' Captain's yacht which had just landed on the
planet. Jamie took up a position above the other Federation vessel in case they needed any
support.
============================================================
Liuetenant Commander Thoraz Brynaziir
Captain's Yacht
Stardate 9911.12
"Captain Tafner, I will keep an open channel so we can coordinate our efforts more easily.
Lt. Dean, close on the closest group of Consortium vessel."
"Commander, there are 5 fighters and 3 shuttles coming within firing range" Ensign Jarvez
called as she monitored the sensors.
"LT Ku'Rel, fire at will."
"Aye Sir" the weapons officer replied as he began to unleash a volley of phaser fire
towards the fighter craft as Lt Dean swerved in and out among the fleeing craft. The first
fighter was grazed, but enough to throw it off course and into one of the shuttles. On their
next pass the phasers took out two more fighters. The Captain's yacht shook under the return
fire.
"Aft shields at 85%" called out Ensign Adams.
"Reroute all non-essential systems power to shields" Thoraz replied right back without
hesitation. The small Federation craft gracefully flew circles around the fleeing Consortium
scum. Thoraz's team traded blow for blow, easily outgunning the last two fighters and remaining
shuttles.
"Shields at 75%."
"Phasers recharging."
"Changing course to 024mark 30" called Lt Dean.
"More fighter craft coming into range, disruptors firing."
"Evasive maneuvers Mr Dean."
"The ship banter was like a choreographed musical. Three more fighter craft were destroyed
while the Yacht escaped unscathed.
=============================================================
Captain Sortha
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.12
Sortha acknowledged receipt of Admiral Palanar. It had been a stroke of good luck... and
good planning on Dyer's part, that had captured the rogue Admiral. It would prove to be most
convenient for when Starfleet decided to interrogate Palanar.
"Sortha to away teams. Get all nonessential personnel off that ship.
Commander, that includes you. The marines can handle the torpedo."
Once Sortha received an indication that all the personnel except the three Federation marines
had beamed off Palanar's stricken vessel, he looked at his chronometer. One and a half minutes
to go. If they couldn't deactivate the torpedo detonation, he'd have to clear out. Sortha moved
Fearless into transporter range of the Ticonderoga. "Ticonderoga, we have a ssituation. We need
to immediately evacuate the Ticonderoga. Implement emergency evacuation protocols. We'll sstart
beaming you over en masse. Sortha out."
Turning to the Fearless' navigator Sortha ordered, "keep an eye on the countdown. If we get
to three seconds, we'll take whoever we were able to evacuate and go to warp 9.9 and clear the
blast radius."
Then keying his intercom, Sortha transmitted a warning with the countdown information to
Lt Commander Brynaziir and Captain Tafner.
=============================================================
Lt. Commander Sholek
Engineering
Stardate 9911.12
Sholek gathered his Engineering repair crews and sent the off to begin repairs. The Fearless
hadn't taken too much damage and would not require much repair. The Ticonderoga, on the other
hand, didn't even have warp capabilities.
=============================================================
Lt. Commander Jeff O'Neill & Commander Dara Ilia
USS Ticonderoga
Stardate 9911.12
It appeared that the battle was coming to an end. Jeff took a glance on the tactical screen
on the console nearby. The Dragonslayer and what appeared to the Captain's Yacht from the Fearless
were hunting down the swarm of shuttles and rescuepod's, coming from the planet's surface and the
remains of the Consortium Fleet. Palanar's heavy cruiser was crippled by Fearless' lethal weapons.
They had received word that it was boarded by Ticonderoga's Marine Force, and a delegation of
the Captain's yacht.
Jeff concentrated again on the repairs. He had sealed off the plasma injectors to the nacelle.
Shields were coming back, but Jeff was glad that they didn't have to go back in combat. They were
a mere 45-percent. A good placed volley of torpedoes would wipe them right out existence. Jeff sat
back for a moment and rubbed his eyes. He looked at Starr, who also looked like hell. Her eyes
were red, and every now and then she shook her shoulders, trying to supress the grief she felt
over Draco's death.
Starr cleared her throat, as she adressed Ilia. "Commander,there's a message coming from the
Fearless. They have captured Palanar."
A cheer went over the weary crew of the Ticonderoga. Jeff smiled. Finally they had caught him.
Then, an alarm blared, and Jeff looked at the sensor readings.
"I'm reading an energy build up in one of the torpedoe bays of the heavy cruiser. It won't take
long before energy levels get that high that remaining torpedoes will detonate. " Jeff said, while
he cursed the rings of the gas giant, as they distorted the readings.
Jeff caught Ilia's thoughts immediately. "Jahkar!" She turned her head and face Jeff, her
worries displayed on her face. Then she turned back. "Computer, open a channel to Sgt Jahkar."
"Jahkar, get the hell out of there !" Ilia said. No response.
"Interference is too high. I'll reroute energy to the main deflector dish. Helm, get alongside
the cruiser. Get ready to break away on full impulse." Jeff blared, as he tapped in commands.
"Try again!" Jeff said, as the Ticonderoga moved to the heavy damaged cruiser.
"Ilia to Jahkar. Get the hell out of there. "
Lots of noise and crackle came through, than a distorted voice came in.
"Jahkar here. I'm trying to shut down one of these subspace weapons. It will detonate in
three minutes if I can't get it offline. "
Jeff jumped up. "Beam me over. I have experience with these kind of torpedoes."
Commander Ilia looked at Jeff, than back to the viewscreen.
"Get back alive. And bring Jahkar with you. "
"Yes ma'am!" Jeff said, as he grabbed his toolkit, and ordered OPS to beam him over. The
next moment, he was caught in the blue swirl of energy, and a moment later, he was standing
next to Jahkar, who already had opened the access hatch of the subspace torpedo. Around them,
the lights flickered, as the primary energy conduits were failing. Sparks flew through the area
as another system blew up.
=============================================================
Sgt. Jahkar
Orion heavy cruiser
Stardate 9911.12
Jahkar materialized in the the torpedo bay of the Orion heavy cruiser and looked around
carefully. The bay was dimly lit and the flashing red light panels in the walls, signifying a
red alert. Damage had caused some consoles and ODN conduits in the bay to sparks and hiss with
escaping plasma.
He saw two members of the crew standing over a cylinderical torpedo casing locked into a
loading rack in the bay. Both were humans. They appeared to be preplexed about the unusual
flashing lights emitting from the side of the torpedo casing.
"You figure it's about to explode?" one human asked the other, neither of them seeing Jahkar
as the Marine stalked across the bay toward them.
"A dunno...I think we ought to get the hell out of here," the other said.
Jahkar flipped the safety off his M75 and walked straight at the two men. As they turned to
leave, they found themselves face-to-face with the Romulan/Klingon marine.
One human reached for his disruptor, the other turned to run. Jahkar raised the M75 in a one
handed grip and fired a single shot into the chest of the man pulling his weapon. The human
collapsed on his back, a hole blown clean through his torso.
"Freeze!" Jahkar snarled at the fleeing human. The man stopped cold in his tracks and held
his hands up.
"Don't shoot! I'm just an engineer...we was just trying to fix the torpedo launcher!" the man
wimpered.
"Shut up and come here," Jahkar told the man. He turned and walked back to Jahkar, his eyes
falling on the prone body of his friend. "This torpedo, what is it?"
"A-a special phased torpedo...Palanar brought it aboard," the man reported, eyeing Jahkar's
M75 aimed at his face.
"Take the panel off the side of the torpedo," Jahkar order. "Quickly."
The man slowly nodded, took a tool from his belt and knelt down. As he worked, Jahkar heard
a static-filled commline open in his subvocal communicator. It was IIia.
"Ilia to Jahkar. Get the hell out of there!" her stress filled voice sounded.
"Jahkar here. I'm trying to shut down one of these subspace weapons. It will detonate in
three minutes if I can't get it offline. "
He knew she wanted him to beam back to the ship, but he knew he had to do this. Or Ticonderoga
might not get away in time. He knelt down to the now open torpedo casing and sized up the job.
"It's going to overload man!" the human cried. "We're gonna die!"
"Unless we can shut it down," Jahkar said. "Give me your tools. I am going to sling my
weapon...but rest assured if you try to run or attack me, I will kill you."
The man looked scared and nodded, but then added softly, "B-but..what if we can't...um...shut
this thing down? We're going to..."
"..die," Jahkar said, completing his statement. "We can't get far enough away from this
weapon right now to avoid that...we have to shut it off."
The man nodded and knelt down, handing Jahkar the tool belt he wore. Jahkar selected a laser
clipper and went to work.
Just then, a figure beamed into the torpedo bay directly behind Jahkar. His first inclination
was to turn and kill whoever it was, but he decided not to even acknwoledge the new arrival...
whoever it was. He was too damn busy at the moment. Besides, whoever it was could either help or
die when the torp detonated.
Jahkar was relieved as Jeff O'Neill from Ticonderoga walked up beside him and knelt down.
"How long do we have?" Jeff said, while opening a tricorder, and scanning the torpedoe.
"150 seconds" Jahkar replied, while he was digging though some optical wires.
"Ticonderoga, beam us back in two minutes, no matter what ! " Jeff said, after he opened a
channel.
A weak "Understood" came through.
"Won't matter if they beam us back or not...Ticonderoga is without warp speed. She'll never
get clear of the subspace tear this thing will create," Jahakr muttered as he worked.
Jeff exhaled, then he looked at the fierce half-Klingon Marine. "OK, let's get this thing
offline." He looked at the grubby human kneeling there, helping Jahkar and furroughed his brow.
"Meet my prisoner," Jahkar said. "Prisoner...meet Commander O'Neill. If you try to flee..."
"I know...he'll k-kill me," the man replied.
Jahkar nodded and went back to work.
=============================================================
Lt. Commander Jeff O'Neill
Orion Heavy Cruiser
Stardate 9911.12
Jeff continued scanning, and clicked with his tongue of frustration as he noticed that the
weapon was trap-wired with some nifty booby-traps.
"Damn!" Jeff cursed. He checked again, trying to get a lock on the pattern of the algoritm,
used to lock the circuits. Feverlishly, he tapped in commands, trying to get a hold. 30 seconds
later, he was able to get through them.
"I'm through. But there is another layer of traps. Any suggestions ??"
Jeff looked at Jahkar, as he wiped the sweat of his forehead....
============================================================
Sgt. Jahkar
Orion Heavy Cruiser
Stardate 9911.12
"Allow me," Jahkar stated as he dug back inside the torpedo. Every fiber optic lead and
every piece of bioneural circuitry he disconnected or removed, the human engineer would gasp,
expecting death at any moment.
At the two minute mark Jahkar hailed Ticonderoga. "Do not beam us out! Repeat! We have to
finish this! Take the ship and get as far as you can on impulse!"
"Jahkar!" Dara replied.
"Commander...please," O'Neill said, staring at Jahkar. "Even if we beam back the Tic can't
get far enough away on impulse. It's all or nothing."
"Acknowledged," IIia replied. "Ticonderoga out."
Like a pro, Jahkar calmly and cooly took the arming mechanism of the torpedo apart, working
around and through traps the admiral had laid.
"How much time do we have," the human engineer asked, wiping sweat from his brow even though
he wasn't working.
Jahkar took a quick glance at his chrono. "One minute ten seconds," he said emotionlessly.
The human looked to O'Neill, who like Jahkar did not flinch.
"We're not gonna make it," the man, starting to get up. "I..I've got to get out of here!"
"Sit!" Jahkar and O'Neill both demanded. "Hold this flashlight...I'm too deep into this thing...
I can't see anymore. Sit and do it...or I will kill you!"
The man squeezed his eye shut a moment, then forced himself to sit. He took the flashlight
and directed it into the panel on the side of the torpedo casing.
Suddenly, Colonel Williams' voice crackled over the subvocal communicator.
"Williams to Jahkar. Report."
"Almost there, things good upside?" Jahkar replied.
"Yes, Palanar is now in Fearless' custody, and we need to go now."
"One more minute."
"Acknowledged. Williams out."
Seconds began to tick down. Jahkar was aware he was running out of time. Fortunately this
torpedo was similar in configuration to a quantum torpedo...he'd practiced disarming both
quantum and photon torpedos before. This was about the same...other than the fact when this
weapon exploded it would create a huge tear across subspace. The damage to the Xerkos system
and the Shadow Ops ships here would be devastating.
Jahkar found the mechanism he was looking for. A biogel pack attached to the torpedo's
arming device. He disconnected the leads from it and suddenly the torpedo stopped pulsing with
light and noise.
"It's off?" the human asked.
"Yes," Jahkar stated. He then raised his phaser rifle and trained it on him. "Now...you are
under arrest."
The human grimaced and put his hands atop his head. Jahkar looked at O'Neill and keyed his
subvocal communicator. "Jahkar to Williams. Torpedo is deactivated."
=============================================================
Xerkos System
Stardate 9911.12
Most of the escaping shuttles had been destroyed or captured. Several had dropped out of warp
and hailed Dragonslayer and the Fearless' captain's yacht, indicating they'd surrendered. They
weren't sure, but possibly two or three ships had escaped to warp. They had, however, stopped
most of the escapees.
Near Xerkos, Lt. Commander Brynaziir was helping round up the prisoners when he made telepathic
contact with a familiar mind. It was Chas'naH. She was on the planet, waiting to be picked up.
END TRANSMISSION
Lieutenant Commander Thoraz Brynaziir
Captain's Yacht - Xerkos System
Stardate 9911.12
Thoraz sat in the command chair on the captain's yacht. His team was
efficient and effective. The few remaining Consortium transports and
shuttles were surrendering.
"Consortium craft, lower your shield and prepare to be boarded. Lt Bok,
Ensign Marquilles, beam over in pairs, phaser rifeles set to max stun, wide
beam dispersal. Escort those three shuttles to the Fearless. We'll follow behind. Once you
enter the hangar bay we'll head back to the planet. We have some people to pick up."
"Aye Sir" they relpied almost in unison. Soon six members of Alpha Squad
were gone. The Consortium pilots must have been scared, for there was no
resistance as they were excorted to the Fearless. Once the shuttles were
within the hangar bay and the forcefield reengaged Thoraz directed Lt Dean to
head planetside.
"Lt Cmdr Brynaziir to Captain Sortha."
"Go ahead Commander."
"Sir, we are heading for the planet to pick up Chas and any other survivors.
Lt. Dean landed the shuttle some distance away from the Consortium base.
"Sir, there are lifesigns at coordinates 55mark7", Ensign Jarvez called out.
"Lt Dean, remain with the Yacht. Monitor our progress. If there are any
surprises, make for orbit. Lt Ku'Rel you will lead the rest of Alpha Squad.
Let's go."
Thoraz took point, followed by Maxwell, Asi, Mark, Ku'Rel and Koshoo. All
had phaser rifles drawn and primed. Thoraz telepathically called out to Chas
'I'm coming Chas. Where are you?'
In his mind, Thoraz saw an rock-strewn area of the planet..the feature
markers gave him a quick idea as to the exact location.
Alpha Squad met little resistance on their way to Chas.
=============================================================
Lieutenant JG Chas'naH
Xerkos IV
Stardate 9911.13
Chas'naH watched the landing team arrive and felt her heart lighten. She
rose to her feet and walked towards them quickly, fighting the urge to run to
Thoraz, who was leading the group.
"Lieutenant!" Thoraz greeted her heartily. She wanted to embrace him and
kiss him, feel his warmth and affection. She had never thought she would feel
him near her again. But it was not appropriate in front of the others. She
knew he could sense her longing however, and the look in his eyes told her
that he wished the same.
"Commander," she said formally, "What is our status?"
Thoraz smiled. "We are victorious...we have captured Palanar."
She felt her spirits lift even more at that. She was glad Palanar was not
dead..she wanted to kill him herself. "Excellent." she tested her injured arm
and winced. "Lets get off this rock"
Once they were back on the Captain's yacht, Chas'naH stood impatiently
while Thoraz did his best on the wound on her arm. The two were in a small
private room, just off the bridge. As he finished applying the regenerator to
her wound and set it down, she pulled him forward and kissed him passionately.
Thoraz murmured against her mouth, "Chas..we have people right outside.."
But he returned the kiss with equal enthusiasm.
Finally they broke off, both breathing hard, exchanging a look that said
that they would finish this soon..many times over. Chas'naH pulled the vial
out of her pocket and held it up. "I require a hypospray."
Thoraz stared at th vial. "What is it?"
Chas'naH smiled..a smile that was for the first time in so long serene
and peaceful. "My freedom." she handed Thoraz the vial as he prepared a
hypospray. "Do the honors, my love. Set me free."
=============================================================
Lt Commander Thoraz Brynaziir
Xerkos IV/ Captain's Yacht/ USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.13
Thoraz saw Chas sitting and holding her arm. After a quick sweep of the
area they returned to the yacht.
"Mr Dean, take us home. Lt Chas'naH requires some medical attention.
Call me if I'm needed."
"Aye sir."
Thoraz and Chas went into the adjacent room to utilize the emergency
medical supplies stored there.
Thoraz's time statoned in Sick bay was paying off right now. He had lots
of practice acting as a medic.
Deftly Thoraz filled the hypospray with the antidote and then administered
it. Chas'naH was free of the chemical Palanar had injected her with almost a
year ago.
Thoraz and Chas returned to the bridge area of the yacht. Thoraz once
again sat in the Captain's Chair and Chas stood behind him.
"Hail the Fearless and put her on the view screen." Thoraz stated.
"Aye Aye Commander."
"Commander, good to sssee you again" Sortha said, grinning. "Lt." was all
the acknowledgement he gave Chas. "Report to the bridge after docking.
Sortha out."
"Aye Sir" Thoraz replied.
=============================================================
Commander Dara Ilia
Ticonderoga Bridge
Stardate 9911.13
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief as we approached the ship once again
and beamed the team back. While i waited for them to arrive, I looked around
at the others on the bridge. Starr looked terrible but was holding up..and
Sibyl, who had been in the back corner was..
...asleep?
I recalled feeling an odd wave of cofort wash over me earlier..had Sibyl
been casting positive vibes to everyone? If so that must be quite tiring. I
rose from my seat and approached the sleeping form gingerly, kneeling down
next to him. "Ensign?"
When he did not respond, I gently shook him and he stirred. He looked up
at me. "Commander?" He looked around. "Oh, what happened..."
"You fell asleep Ensign," I said. "Please go back to sickbay and prepare
for wounded."
He rose to his feet, looking a bit embarassed. "Yes sir" he mumbled. As
he turned fur the lift I put a hand on his shoulder and spoke in a voice low
enough for only him to hear.
"I appreciate what you did for us earlier," I told him. "I don't know how
I could have made it through that without your comforting thoughts. I thank you."
Sibyl smiled, looking pleased, and merely nodded in response. He then
entered the turbolift.
============================================================
Ensign Cumae Sibyl
USS Ticonderoga
Stardate 9911.13
Cumae was happy the commander had thanked him, he was expecting reprimand
so it was nice to be affirmed. He had no intention of falling asleep but
broadcasting to that many people at once had proved more draining than he
thought. He was disappointed that he missed the final chapter in this
escapade but none the less he was glad to be alive.
Afterall, when subspace weapons were involved nobody usually proved the
winner. Exiting the turbolift Cumae let his mind drift to more personal
thoughts. He hadn't seen his family since leaving for the Academy and he
missed them. But he didn't feel confident enough writing home yet, that
saddened him but he couldn't see what could be done about it, well not until
he achieved more anyway.
Entering Sickbay Rebekah immedialy reported with an all-green situation
and now that the bay was all but empty Cumae went into the office and set
about ordering the ex-doctors personal effects that he had there. After about
10 minutes of reorganising Cumae realised that none of the marines had been
called for an off-ship check-up, something which had to be done. Sitting back
in his chair Cumae tapped his COMM badge and addressed his yet to be patients.
=^=Sibyl calling all personnel who have been off ship over the last 48 hours,
you are required to visit Sickbay within twenty 24 hours for a short
examination=^=.
On a lighter note Cumae added, =^= and for all those suffering from stress
related injuries please feel free to come and see me to, hope you heard that
Commander Ilia=^=
As Cumae closed the COMM link he smiled and wondered if he'd get to see
any marines before 2 weeks had past.
=============================================================
Lieutenant Colonel Lance Williams
Orion Heavy Cruiser
Stardate 9911.13
Williams was downloading everything he could from the cruiser's computers.
When Jakhar did his work well and disarmed that torpedo, this information
could come in handy in the pursuit and prosecution of the Consortium.
"Jahkar to Williams. Torpedo is deactivated."
"Outstanding Sergeant, good work. Return to the Ticonderoga with the
torpedo, we may be able to use it in the future. We'll be along shortly."
"Undertsood. Jahkar out."
Williams turned back to the console, and finished downloading as much as
his tricorder could hold. Then he handed the full Tricorder to Pickering,
and took his.
Moments later, it was full too.
"Alright, Mr Pickering, are you ready to go home."
"Yes sir."
"Williams to Ticonderoga, two to transport."
=============================================================
Captain Sortha
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.14
Sortha looked around him and nodded in satisfaction. His bridge was
clean. His ship was intact. The Consortium had been dealt a crushing blow,
and Admiral Palanar had been captured alive. As soon as he got back to
spacedock, he'd have some more small ship silhouettes painted on the side of
the Fearless' engineering hull, maybe before spacedock he mused, -signs of a
successful hunt.
Ticonderoga wasn't in as good of shape, but she was repairable, and they
had a captured heavy cruiser and a light cruiser to show for their efforts.
Repairs to all damaged ships were proceeding at full speed. It wouldn't be
too much longer until Ticonderoga's warp engines were back online and they
could head home at warp 1. He'd have to deal with a number of personnel
issues when they got back and he didn't look forward to that, but it was all
part of the job.
Sortha continued to receive and sign off on miscellaneous orders as the
Federation fleet repaired itself.
"Captain Tafner" Sortha said when Tafner reported that Ticonderoga was
ready for warp 1, "congratulations to your team for capturing Admiral
Palanar. You and your crew are invited to a reception aboard Fearless
tomorrow at 1800 hours."
Sortha then keyed in a comm signal to Captain Kostov who was busy making the
Orion light cruiser she had captured warp ready.
"Captain, how are repairs proceeding?" Sortha asked in good humor. He had
beamed aboard Fearless repair crews and a skeleton crew to the light cruiser,
since they had not much to do on Fearless.
"Just about there Captain, couple more hours."
"Excellent, You and your officer are invited to a reception aboard
Fearless tomorrow at 1800 hours.
"We'll be there. Kostov out."
One more left to do. "Commander, how are repairs proceeding?" Sortha
asked Commander Dyer who he had put in charge of the captured Orion Heavy
Cruiser. He'd also sent over Fearless repair crews and a skeleton crew.
"It's a mess, but we'll have minimal warp capabilities soon I think.
Sholek here is doing a fine job helping me out. We won't have much else
working, but we'll be able to get the hell out of here Captain." Dyer
responded, wiping some grease from his chin.
"Good. Think you'll have time for a break at 1800 tomorrow?" Sortha asked.
"I'll make time sir, we'll need some relaxation by then." Dyer replied.
"Very well, I'll see you then. Sortha out."
Admiral Jaegar got up from the chair beside Sortha and stretched. "I'm
going down to the brig, if you don't mind. I'd like to see how our
guest...the good admiral...is doing."
Sortha hissed, "Sssend him my regardssss."
Jaegar smiled and headed off to the brig to come face to face with his nenemis....
=============================================================
Lieutenant Jamie Marcus
USS Ticonderoga
Stardate 9911.14
Jamie had just piloted the Dragonslayer back into it's berth on
Ticonderoga. They had to manually dock it as the automatic docking systems
had been damaged. Jamie had sweated that landing as Captain Tafner looked
over her shoulder as she performed the delicate docking maneuver. She had
breathed a sigh of relief to herself when she had landed without even a tiny bump.
Everyone had filed off the ship and dispersed quickly once the doors had
opened. Everyone had things to do. As she left she patted the hull of
Dragonslayer. "Good girl." she whispered, and then turned to leave.
Ticonderoga looked like a mess, conduits hung from the ceiling and access
panels were removed everywhere as damage control parties busied themselves
with repairs.
Jamie made her way to the bridge where Commander Ilia was busy
coordinating the ship repairs. "Glad to see you back in one piec.........
oo, that's a nasty bruise" Commander Dara said indicating the side of Jamie's
head. She hadn't had time to look in a mirror, but from the reactions she
was getting from everyone, it must be quite a shiner.
"You should see the other guy" Jamie replied smiling. She walked over
to tactical and assisted the duty officer with repairs to the tactical
station. As soon as everything was squared away, she looked forward to a
nice long sleep in her quarters.
=============================================================
Sgt. Jahkar
USS Ticonderoga
Stardate 9911.14
Jahkar, the away team and the Dragonslayer were all back aboard the
Ticonderoga in one piece. While they were none the worse for wear, the Tic
looked likea disaster. Evidence of the battle was everywhere, with blown
plasma conduits, shattered ODN consoles and bundles of fiber optic cables
hanging from the ceilings.
Once their gear was stowed, Jahkar and Williams headed up to the bridge.
Williams because he was a command officer on the ship, and
Jahkar...well...for personal reasons.
When they stepped off the turbolift, they saw the bridge looking pretty
much as the rest of the ship did. Battered. But then he saw what he'd come
looking for. His wife.
IIia was giving Captain Tafner a report on the ship's status following
the battle. She looked tired and there were a few smudges of dirt here and
there...but otherwise she looked great.
Jahkar surveyed the rest of the bridge and saw Krystal Starr manning her
tactical console, so quietly no one could tell she was even there. Her eyes
were red from crying and he noticed her hands shaking slightly.
This had undoubtably been rough for her. The man she apparently loved was
dead, after betraying the crew. And now, amid the post battle flurry of
activity, she had no one to confort or console her.
Jahkar was not sorry to see Draco dead. The man was a traitor. But part
of him could not help but thank the man for saving his children. He had heard
how Draco gave his life to stop Palanar from using the children as hostages.
At least he'd had the decency to turn on his "master" and make up for his misdeeds.
As Dara finished her report, she turned and looked up toward the aft
section of the bridge and saw Jahkar standing there, still dressed in his
black commando outfit. She saw him and surpressed a huge grin...but instead
offered a more professional smile.
Tafner looked up and saw Jahkar, then he glanced around and saw Krystal
Starr bent over her console, obviously in a state of depression. He sighed
and made a quick command decision.
"Commander Dara, you have children to tend to," Tafner said. "I've got
things from here. Take a few hours, get some rest."
Dara nodded, "Aye sir."
"And Lt. Starr, you too...go get some rest," Rick said without looking at
Krystal. She didn't respond, just shook her head and left.
Dara and Jahkar let Krystal take the main turbolift off the bridge, they
took the secondary lift which was nearby. Once they were on it, they ordered
it to the floor their quarters were located on and the doors closed.
As the lift started out, Jahkar suddenly ordered it to halt.
He looked at IIia and she looked at him. Their eyes met for a long time
and he could see the hurt and saddess in her eyes. She'd been through hell.
Jahkar stepped toward her and took his wife in his arms. He hugged her and
held her close to him. She stiffled a sob.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I couldn't give Palanar control. I feel terrible...my babies."
"IIia...you did what you had to do," Jahkar said. "Even if you would have
given Palanar control of the ship, he would have killed Tajel and
Kedanya...and you and everyone else aboard Ticonderoga."
She shook her head, "I know. But it was the most horrible decision I've
ever had to make."
"I know...but its over IIia," he said, hugging her tight. "Let's not
think about what could have been...just think about the fact we're all alive
and healthy."
Dara bent her head up toward Jahkar and he lowered his head. Leaning in
close he kissed her long and deeply. He was so glad to be back and to have
this mission behind them.
"Let's go see how the kids are," Jahkar whispered as they parted.
"Computer, resume lift."
============================================================
Xerkos System
Stardate 9911.15
Lore sat in the cockpit of a small Orion fightercraft and watched the
battle with great interest. As he predicted, the Consortium ships eventually
lost to the superior Starfleet ships.
And as the battle wound up, the android decided it was time for him to leave.
He'd let the fighter drift unpowered into the rings of Xerkos VI. Once
inside those rings he fired up the engines and took off, using the rings and
the huge gas giant planet to mask his energy signature.
Once on the opposite side of Xerkos VI, he set course for a planet he'd
read about called Cutter's World. It was an outlaw planet used by the
Consortium and other criminal groups, near the Romulan neutral zone. It was
there Lore decided he would begin his new lease on life after five years of
being stored in a cybernetics lab on Earth.
"Thank you so much Admiral Palanar for giving me back my freedom," Lore
said as he went to warp in the sleek fighter. "Too bad I can't come back and
help you...but I'm not about to go down with the sinking ship."
END TRANSMISSION
Admiral Erik Jaegar
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.17
Erik Jaegar arrived in the brig of the Fearless, escorted by one of the
few remaining security officers. Where Ticonderoga had suffered physical
damage, Fearless had suffered in losses of life on this mission.
Palanar had much to answer for.
Jaegar came to stand outside the cell which held the traitor. The
blue-skinned andorian sat in his cell, staring at the ceiling. Jaegar wanted
badly to have the forcefield lowered so he could walk in a pummel the
bastard, but he knew security protocols wouldn't allow that...especially
since he was no longer technically an admiral. The day he ran from the
charges brought against him through Palanar's trickery, he'd forfeited his
rank and commission in Starfleet. Whether he could regain that now depended
on the direction things took from here.
"Do you realize how many Starfleet officers died because of you?" Jaegar
asked as he stared at Palanar through the invisible forcefield.
Palanar turned and offered Jaegar a grin. "Obviously not enough, since
you won."
"Your record was impeccible, Palanar," Jaegar said. "Why would you ally
yourself with the Consortium?"
Palanar nearly jumped up from his seat and he came at the forcefield,
nostrils flaring, jaw clenched...a look of intense hatred on his face.
"Because I could no longer serve a government that turned its back on
good, loyal men like my father and the rest of the Omega Solution group,"
Palanar hissed. "And YOU were one of the bastards who betrayed them!"
Jaegar took a deep breath, "Your father must have been Srevregy, he was
the only Andorian among the Omega Solution group. There was so little
information on them available from Section 31....I can only remember that name."
"That is one of the names he went by, yes!" Palanar snarled as he began
pacing his cell. "He and others volunteered for the Omega Solution project.
He sank his life into it. He gave up everything for his life serving the
Federation. Then you and the rest of the bureaucrats who couldn't stomach
what you'd created turned on them!"
"They were out of control. They wouldn't stand down when ordered!" Jaegar
retorted.
"They were under orders, Erik!" Palanar shouted. "Section 31 told them
before the Omega Solution mission began that they were not to stand down
under any circumstance. That meant even a presidential order for them to
disband and cease operations would not be obeyed."
Jaegar shook his head. "They had choices."
"Not in their eyes," Palanar said solemnly. "It took me years to find my
father. My mother had always told me he was dead...but it turned out she had
lied. She left him because of Section 31. Because he refused to get out. She
never even told him about me.
"I tracked him down to a place called Cutter's World several years
ago...a backwater haven for outlaws. When he learned of my existence, at
first he was going to deny he was my father," Palanar said. "But he decided
to tell me the truth. All of the truth. Including the fact he was one of the
leaders of a up and coming criminal syndicate called the Consortium.
"At first I was torn by my duty....I almost decided to bring him in as a
criminal," Palanar continued. "But as I thought of how the Federation
betrayed him. How you, Sorvek and the others tried to have him and the others
murdered...I knew I couldn't take him in. And I knew I could no longer serve
this hypocritical government.
"I was going to resign and join my father and the Consortium, but he
persuaded me to provide an even greater service to the Consortium...he wanted
me to help inflict harm upon the Federation for what it did to him and the
Omega group," Palanar said. "I used my role with Starfleet Intelligence to
provide information to the Consortium. I also used it to track the movements
of Federation citizens responsible for the destruction of the Omega Solution group."
Jaegar shook his head, "And you singled Sorvek and I out?"
"Not completely. Remember when Federation Councilman Jarl died in that
unexplained shuttle crash a few years ago?" Palanar said with a sadistic
grin. "That was me. And the aneurism that killed ex-President Muhabai three
years ago."
"You?" Jaegar gasped.
"Indeed," Palanar said. "I also killed one of the ex-leaders of Section
31 just last year...but that was something you wouldn't have heard about.
Those Section 31 stiffs are quite secretive."
"And for Sorvek and I you planned the destruction of Shadow Ops?" Jaegar snapped.
"Not exactly. I planned to destroy you and kill Sorvek," Palanar said
very matter-of-factly. "Then I planned to seize control of Shadow Operations.
That's why I got myself transferred from Starfleet Intel. Being I was third
in command of the organization, eliminating the two of you would have
guaranteed me control over the organization.
"Can you imagine? A criminal organization like the Consortium in control
of a special forces group like Shadow Ops?" Palanar mused. "It would have
been interesting, don't you think?"
"In your dreams, Palanar," Jaegar muttered. "Tell me...how did you frame
me as the leak?"
Palanar kept pacing his cell and clasp his hands behind his back. "Well..I
guess I can tell you. If you or anyone else would have bothered doing your
research, you might have learned a team of computer designers at Starfleet
Intelligence called Division Three built all of the computer systems for USS Retribution."
"Yes...I think I remember seeing that information somewhere," Jaegar said,
frowning. "Retribution was originally to be a Starfleet Intelligence ship,
but was diverted to Shadow Ops after the destruction of the SO headquarters
in Australia."
"I was in charge of Division Three while I was at Starfleet Intelligence.
I was one of the chief computer designers for the SI," Palanar bragged. "I
loaded that system up with so many secret backdoors and passwords, I could go
anywhere inside that computer core and never be caught."
Jaegar didn't say anything, he just stewed at the news the entire computer
system on Retribution was designed to let Palanar run amok, doing whatever he wanted.
Palanar finally said. "I guess by now you've raided the base on Xerkos
and have many of my compatriots in custody?"
"We do," Jaegar confirmed.
"My father, was he among them," Palanar asked. "Because if he was, he and
I are prepared to reveal everything we know about the Omega Solution. The
Federation will be rocked to its very foundation by what we know."
"Palanar, your father is dead," Jaegar said emotionlessly. "He was killed
accidentally when Lt. Chas'naH destroyed the shield generator on Xerkox IV."
The Andorian stopped pacing and turned, looking at Jaegar in disbelief.
"That...cannot be! Chas'naH! She murdered him! That filthy halfbreed Klingon
killed him!"
"I'm sorry, but that's officially what happened to him. I'm sorry,
Palanar," Jaegar said with contempt. "Just like you are sorry for all the
deaths you've caused."
Palanar growled and threw himself against the forcefield, causing it to
spark in protest. "Tell that Klingon bitch I will see her dead for this! And
you...you will pay too! The Consortium may be broken, but we still have
minions out there at our disposal. I can have you, her, Sorvek, anyone killed
from my prison cell!"
"We shall see," Jaegar said gruffly. "But considering the confessions you
made here today, I doubt you'll get any other sentence but death."
"Death sentences were abolished more than 50 years ago by the Federation,
Erik," Palanar snarled. "Study your history better."
"I'm not talking about an official sentence, Palanar. You know a lot about
Section 31," Jaegar said. "When they learn just how much you know...or claim
to know...I wouldn't count on serving too much of whatever sentence you might
receive. They have many...minions at their disposal."
Palanar glared at Jaegar. "Guard! I want to be left alone!"
Jaegar smiled, "Enjoy the trip home, Palanar." He then turned and left the brig.
END TRANSMISSION
Lieutenant JG Chas'naH
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.19
Chas'naH headed straight to the brig as soon as she and Thoraz arrived
back on the Fearless. She dismissed the guard and stared into the eyes of the
man who had tormented her all this time.
"Hello, you halfbreed whore," Admiral Palanar sneered. "I see you're
still alive. Pity you won't be much longer. Without the antidote you will.."
"You mean this?" Chas'naH asked, grinning as she held up the vial that
had once held the antidote. She relished the look of surprise and rage on
Palanar's face.
"How did you know where to find it?" Palanar hissed.
Chas'naH inspected the empty vial casually, then slipped it back in her
pocket. "Your father told me where you'd hidden it..after I broke his wrist
and a few of his fingers."
Palanar let out an inarticulate howl of rage and slammed against the
forcefield. Chas'naH laughed.
"Its appropriate isn't it? After all you've tormented me, you are the one
in confinement," she leaned close to the forcefield and Palanar's snarling
face. "At first I wanted to kill you..but now I realize letting you live will
be even better. Because you will live the rest of your pathetic life knowing
that you were beaten by a 'halfbreed convict whore'. She smiled with
exaggerated sweetness and headed out, Palanar's infuriated yells echoing behind her.
LATER....
"It is ugly. I hate it."
Chas'naH stood in front of the mirror, wearing the Starfleet dress
uniform she was required to wear for the party. It was totally unsuited to
her tastes, and it felt itchy for some reason.
Thoraz, also in dress uniform, looked quite handsome, although she still
much preferred him in klingon style clothing..or even better, nothing at all.
"You look fine..just try to relax, you'll get through it." Thoraz could sense
her dislike of the situation and knew she'd be willing to do just about
anything to get out of it. He sent her some warm, comforting thoughts, and
she seemed to relax a bit.
Chas'naH turned to her lover and pressed close to him. "We will have our
own celebration afterwards..will you stay with me tonight?" She grinned. "I
promise once it begins you will never want to leave."
Thoraz let his hands rest comfortably on her waist. "Of course..I
wouldn't miss it." The kissed, and then headed out to the party.
=============================================================
Commander Dara Ilia
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.19
We beamed onto the Fearless and proceeded to where the party was being
held. I wasn't particularly fond of these new dress uniforms, but Ii thought
Jahkar looked incredibly handsome in his marine dress uniform..although he
didn't seem particular to be happy about what he was wearing either. Just
outside I stopped and spoke to him in a low voice.
"You only have to be in that for a few hours," I whispered, adding a purr
to my voice i knew he liked. "Then we'll find ourselves a functioning
holodeck and.." I whispered the rest into his ear. What I whispered to him
made him growl low in his throat and shiver briefly.
"That..sounds good" Jahkar said out loud, trying to sound composed. I
could almost read his mind..I'd just turned him on and he had to wait for
hours before he could do anything about it.
I winked at him..teasing was part of the fun..and we stepped inside.
I paid special attention to the Fearless crewmembers. A curious bunch.
Captain Sortha, the giant Gorn. A klingon female about as tall as Jahkar,
dressed in a Starfleet dress uniform and looking rather uncomfortable with
it. As my eyes moved around the room they suddenly stopped short.
That man in the corner looked familiar..
I stepped forward a bit and realized it was Lt. Greg Durham. I had served
with him on one mission with Bravo Squad before he had gone off on some
mysterious 'leave'. And beside him was...
I couldn't believe it. I walked over quickly, feeling my heart lighten.
"Captain Kostov?"
=============================================================
Anastasia Kostov
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.21
Kostov, dressed in civilian dress clothing, smiled as Dara approached. She
had been captain of the Avenger when Dara and Jahkar served there two years
earlier. It was under her command the couple had met and become involved.
"I'm no longer a captain," Kostov said, taking Dara's hands. "Just call me Ana."
Dara then remembered Kostov had resigned from Shadow Ops and Starfleet
when she came under suspicion during the investigation in which Admiral
Jaegar was framed by Palanar.
"But you're coming back now that the real traitor has been exposed,
right?" Dara asked.
"Perhaps. I'll wait and see how Starfleet JAG handles the charges against
Admiral Jaegar. If he's cleared, I'll ask to return," Kostov said. "If
not...there's plenty of other things for me to do besides the military."
Jahkar approached from behind IIia and gave Kostov a nod, "Captain. It is
a pleasure."
"Likewise sergeant," Kostov said smiling. "Tell me how you've both been
since you left Avenger?"
END TRANSMISSION
Commander Dara Ilia
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.21
Jahkar and Dara exchanged glances. "Well," Ilia said, smiling. "we've
been married for 7 months..and have a 3 month old baby girl."
Kostov broke into a grin. "Congratulations! Everything went well?"
Ilia nodded. "I gave birth in my quarters with a midwife, everything went perfect."
"Thats wonderful." Ana said. "I'll have to come and see her before the
Ticonderoga heads out."
"That'd be great," Ilia said. "Tajel will be glad to see you too. I'm
forever grateful for you letting him come live with me when I transferred to
the Avenger."
"It was my pleasure" Ana replied.
Ilia glanced at her husband and saw that while he was listening, he was
staring rather frequently at the Klingon woman she had noticed when they
first walked in. Not full Klingon, Ilia thought. Her ridges were like
Jahkar's..strong but not as powerfully defined as a full Klingon.
Ilia looked at the other female with a jealous eye. Tall, with a lean,
muscular yet shapely body. Perfect proportions. Looked as if she might kill a
man during mating but they certainly wouldn't mind going out that way. She
was with an even taller man, who looked either Human or Betazoid. She could
tell from their body language that they were a couple.
Ilia's eyes roamed about the rest of the room as well. She sized each of
them up, analyzing them, what their strengths and weaknesses might be..
"Ilia?" Kostov's voice broke in.
She startled and turned back to Kostov. "I'm sorry, I must have fogged
out for a moment." What had distracted her from the conversation? Now she
couldn't even recall. The time between her thanking Kostov for letting Tajel
live on the Avenger and when Kostov had startled her was fuzzy. She decided
it didn't matter, and she and Jahkar continued to socialize.
=============================================================
Lieutenant Commander Thoraz Brynaziir
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.21
Thoraz and Chas entered and looked around. There were a lot of new
faces around. Thoraz and Chas meandered about, mingling and meeting new people.
Sortha was engaged in conversation with Admiral Jaeger and some other people.
Thoraz wondered who was O'Neill; he wanted to meet in person. More crew
continued to file in and out of the room.
"Chas, don't fidget so. You'll have to get used to that uniform" Thoraz
whispered. Thoraz noticed Captain Kostov in a corner with what must be
Ticonderoga crew. As Thoraz and Chas neared the group he spoke out during a
moment of silence.
"Greetings Captain, Commander; I am Liuetenant Commander Thoraz Brynaziir,
Security Chief on the Fearless. This is Lieutenant Chas'naH, my Assistant."
=============================================================
Anastasia Kostov
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.21
Kostov extended a hand to Brynaziir and Chas'naH. Both shook hands. "It's
a pleasure to meet both of you. I'm Anastasia Kostov. This is Commander Dara
IIia from the Ticonderoga and her husband, Sgt. Jahkar."
=============================================================
Lt. Commander Jeff O'Neill.
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.21
Jeff entered the room were the party was held. One hour ago he was
struggling with some plasma conduits. And now he was here, cleaned up,
dressed in his gala uniform, looking sharp. He only missed Kin at his side.
He took a deep breath,and entered the room with the others. For a moment, he
and Tafner stood at the entrance, while the rest walked on.
A big Gorn came walking towards them. "Captain Tafner...Nice to meet you
in perssson." The lizard like humanoid greeted him.
"The feeling is mutual. "Tafner responded. "May I introduce my Chief of
Engineering, Lt. Commander Jeff O'Neill. The Gorn looked at Jeff.
"Welcome aboard the Fearlessss. Make it yourssself at home."
"Thank you, Captain Sortha." Jeff responded politely. The Gorn and Tafner
started a conversation. Jeff listened to it shortly, before he excused
himself and headed to the bar for a drink. He could use one after this hectic mission.
As he sat down at the bar, he ordered a double scotch, and looked around.
He suddenly looked at a huge female Klingon, and an even taller man. Jeff
frowned, as he somehow recognized the man. This had to be Lt. Commander Thoraz
Brynaziir, with whom he had had a telepathic conversation. At the same time,
Commander Bryzannir felt Jeff's presence, and looked in his direction. Jeff
walekd towards him, and shook hands. "You must be Lt. Commander Jeff O'Neill,
with whom I spoke telepathically.
"That is right. Nice to meet you in person, Commander."
"The pleasure is on my side. May I introduce Lt. JG Chas'Nah ?"
Jeff nodded at the gruff looking, though very attractive female Klingon.
"Nice to meet you too, miss Chas'nah" Jeff said.
"So, how are the repairs going ?" Bryzannir asked.
"Well, the Ticonderoga is still in one piece, but we need a few weeks in
drydock before we can go on a mission. She is really messed up by Palanar and
his companions." Bryzannir nodded. For a few minutes, they chit-chatted about
this and that, then Jeff excused himself again. He never liked these official
parties. As he had ordered his second drink, he just stood aside, and watched
people go by. After a while, Dara and Jahkar walked by, and Jeff greeted them.
"I didn't thank you yet for your effort in disabling the subspace weapon."
Jahkar said, shaking Jeff's hand. Jeff shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't do
anymore than my duty."
"Thanks anyway." Jahkar said.
"Wouldn't you join us ?" asked Dara.
"No thanks. I finish this drink, and then I'm outta here. I have lots of
work to do. " Jeff replied. Dara nodded. They said goodbye, and Jeff finished
his drink.
Five minutes later, he already headed back to the Ticonderoga.
On his way to the transporter room, his comm-badge chirped, "Ensign
Cartman to Commander O'Neill."
It was one of his engineering staff. "O'Neill here."
"Just wanted to report that warp power has been restored," Cartman said.
"We can get underway at the captain's discretion. Cartman out."
=============================================================
Lt. Jamie T. Marcus
USS Fearless
Stardate 9911.22
Jamie had been visiting with all of her old aquaintances from the Fearless.
It had been some time since she had seen them, months, and in war, months
seemed like years.
She'd just finished talking with Captain Sortha who
seemed in rare good humor, the big Gorn hissing in satisfaction frequently,
when she felt like someone was staring at her. Scanning the crowd she
didn't notice anyone paying any particular attention, still.... Anyway she
went back to socializing, something she found somewhat difficult as she had
not been the most sociable person at the Academy, preferring to study.
There it was again, that odd feeling. Turning she caught Ticonderoga's
medical officer looking at her. She weakly smiled back. What was his
name... Coma, Cuma, Cumae, yes that was it. He looked like he was enjoying
himself, devouring a heaping plateful of some type of animal meat. There he
was looking again. Embarassed, Jamie started feeling self-conscious.
Suddenly she became aware of just how form fitting these uniforms were. She
moved deeper into the milling crowd of officers. Spotting Commander Dara
Ilia, Jamie moved closer and started a conversation with her.
=============================================================
Ensign Jenna Jacques
Starbase 299
Stardate 9911.22
With a sigh and a hand through her tangled hair, Jenna hauled her duffle
bag onto her shoulder and prepared to stride through the airlock onto the Starbase.
The travelling was getting to her. She'd thought, at the Academy, that travel
would be quick, comfortable, and painless, but she'd since found that not all
of the Federation's ships were shiny and new, or clean, or even worked that
well. Take the current shuttle she was on: she'd happily spend several weeks
overhauling its engines and gyrostabilisers, but not after she'd fixed the
lifesupport; some previous cockpit crew had been Gorn, and cranked the
temperature and humidity up to maximum, and it'd got stuck there. Jenna was a
sweaty wreck.
"Great," she muttered to herself, I get to make another smeg of myself
like last time." She'd come almost straight from Academy to the Retribution,
and been still hung over from the graduation celebrations when she reported
to the Admiral Whatshisname... An extra 30 days being an ensign added to her
record, oh well, she had her whole career ahead of her, she hoped.
As the airlock cycled open, the pilot called back through the cockpit,
"oh, I dropped another fellow off yesterday here, he was going to wait for
the Fearless, too, a Betazoid named Ventura or something. You might want to
look him up."
I might want to clean up, first, Jenna thought to herself. Is it better to
be late in reporting to the officer and neat and clean, or on time and a
mess? The second failed last time, she decided to try the neat but late
option this time.
END TRANSMISSION
FROM: Admiral Sorvek
TO: All Shadow Operations personnel
Subject: The Consortium
Stardate 9911.21
The USS Fearless and USS Ticonderoga have successfully overcome the forces
of the Consortium and, by all immediate accountings, may have brought an end
to that criminal organization.
Fearless, commanded by Captain Sortha, working in conjunction with USS
Ticonderoga, encountered what appears to be the main base of operations for
the Consortium, located on a remote planet called Xerkos IV.
During this confrontation, the two ships learned our own Shadow Ops Field
Commander, Admiral Palanar, was the ongoing security leak believed to be
responsible for feeding the Consortium information about Shadow Ops --
including the command codes which resulted in the destruction of the USS
Renegade last year, and for framing Admiral Erik Jaegar as the leak.
Palanar was arrested at the conclusion of the mission. His motives and
involvement are under investgation. A court martial is being prepared by the
Starfleet Judge Advocate General. Full details will be disclosed after the
case is heard.
One detail I can release now is Palanar apparently was head of the design
team which built the computer systems for the USS Retribution, which was to
be originally used by Starfleet Intelligence...but was turned over to Shadow
Ops as our training and command ship. Palanar built several hidden backdoors
into the system, which allowed him to access information freely and to
manipulate data to make it look as if Jaegar was the leak.
Jaegar, who has been at large since the charges were brought, has
willingly turned himself over to Captain Sortha. He will return to Earth to
answer the charges when Palanar is brought in. I am confident, based on
preliminary reports, that Jaegar will be exonerated.
Retribution will be putting into Spacedock for a computer refit
immediately. There appears to be no further leaks in the organization, but
that will not be confirmed until JAG has finished its investigation.
The Consortium's leadership was completely wiped out or captured during
the mission. We are speculating that the Consortium will completely fragment
now. We expect many elements of the organization may linger -- such as some
of the pirate and smuggling organizations -- but overall the organization
will no longer be a threat.
We have also learned the origins of the Consortium, but details will not
be made available until the JAG investigation is complete. A thorough report
will be offered soon.
My assurances go out to all of you that the shadow of doubt hanging over
this organization will soon lift. I thank all of you for you patience during
the past year. The investigation by JAG and the allegations against Admiral
Jaegar were hard on morale...but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Live long and Prosper,
Admiral Sorvek
END TRANSMISSION
FROM THE GM: For those of you following the Consortium saga, which recently
ended in a joint mission between the crews of the Fearless and Ticonderoga,
this post details the fate of the renegade Shadow Ops admiral known as
Palanar. It was posted tonight as part of Ticonderoga's posting.
Starfleet Headquarters
Security Holding Area
Stardate 9912.27
Palanar, the former Shadow Operation admiral was sitting on the bench in
his cell awaiting his escort to the transporter room. The Andorian wore a
light green jumpsuit with his prison numbers emblazoned across the breast of
the outfit.
Three Starfleet security officers soon arrived outside the door to his
cell. They deactivated the forcefield and one stepped into the tiny room.
"Come on, Palanar," the officer said. "Time to go."
The blue-skinned Andorian stood and waited while the officer put shackles
on his wrists and attached them to a belt around his waist.
"Are you satisfied I'm not going to kill you now?" Palanar asked with
contempt. The young officer smirked and prodded him along, out of the cell.
The officers then ushered Palanar out and started off through the sprawling
security complex toward a transporter station.
The trip took several minutes. Throughout the journey, Palanar said
nothing. He had been quiet since leaving the courtroom, plotting how he would
get his ultimate revenge on the Federation with all of the damning evidence
against Section 31 he had at a hidden location.
Palanar arrived in the transporter room and looked around casually, his
eyes suddenly focusing on a man standing behind the transporter controls. It
was the man from Section 31 known only as Sloan, he wore a Starfleet uniform
and the pips on his collar designated him as a chief petty officer.
"YOU!" Palanar suddenly growled, moving toward the man. "What is he doing here!"
"Who?" one of the security lackies asked.
"That man...the transporter operator," Palanar said as Sloan looked up,
his expression one of surprise.
"He operates the transporter," one of the security officers chuckled.
"What else would he be doing?"
"He's no transporter operator," Palanar raged. "He's with Section 31!"
"Section what?" one of the young security officers asked with a frown.
"What the hell are you talking about, Palanar?" another asked.
Sloan looked around innocently. "Is there a problem?"
The security officer in command of the group escorting Palanar walked over
to Sloan and shook his head, "This guy is nuts. Pay him no attention."
"He's here to kill me!" Palanar shouted as the other two guards began to
move him over to the transporter.
The security commander shook his head again, "Shut up, Palanar. The prison
transport is in orbit and ready to leave with you onboard. We've got a two
minute transporter window...so you have to go now."
"NO!!!!" Palanar yelled, struggling against the guards. "He's not a
transporter operater! He's an agent for Section 31! Don't let him transport me!"
The security commander sighed and turned to Sloan. "You are new here...can
I see your ID?"
"Certainly," Sloan said. He showed the officer a tag attached to his
uniform worn by all personnel in the security facility at Starfleet Command.
The officer checked it with a portable reader he carried and Sloan received a
green light.
"Thanks, Chief Graham...sorry. Just thought I'd be on the safe side," the
young securty officer said. "Your clearance checks out. Palanar is just a
little on the deranged side."
Palanar struggled as he was led onto the transporter pad. "NO! Dammit! I'm
telling you he's not who he claims to be! He's going to kill me! Stop him!"
The security officers placed him on the pad and stood back. Palanar tried
to jump off the pad, but was restrained by a containment field Sloan erected
around the pad. Palanar beat his fists against the forcefield frantically,
trying to escape.
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" the Andorian screamed at the top of his lungs. The
security officers laughed, their backs to Sloan at the transporter controls.
Sloan looked at Palanar and the two made eye contact.
Sloan shook his head as a wide grin crossed his face. "The prison
transport is ready. They've established a confinement beam between us and
them. No one can intercept the transporter beam now. We're ready."
"Energize," the security commander said. "The sooner this traitor is gone,
the better."
"Yes sir," Sloan said, an amused grin flashed briefly to Palanar. He
activated the transporter controls and the equipment began to hum.
"Sloan!!!! I will still have my revenge! You can kill me but I will still
succeed!" Palanar shouted. He was then enveloped in the familair swirling
lights of the transporter and was gone.
Suddenly there was a warning indicator and all thre security officers
nearly jumped.
"What's wrong?" the commander asked, coming around behind the console to
stand beside Sloan.
"Somethings wrong. His pattern is breaking up!" Sloan said excitedly.
"This can't be happening! We're loosing his pattern!"
"Boost the gain!" the security officer shouted.
"I...I...can't...it's not working!" Sloan said, his voice quaking as if he
were in a panic.
The commander pushed his aside and began to operate the controls himself.
When he did, the other two security officers moved to either side of him and
watched the fading transport readings.
Preoccupied with trying to save Palanar, the three security officers
didn't see Sloan step backwards, out the door and into the hallway. Once he
was out of the transporter room, Sloan keyed a transport enhancer on his arm
and he was quickly enveloped in a transporter beam himself. The last thing he
heard was the agonizing screams of Admiral Palanar as the traitor
rematerialized in the transporter room.
On the prison transport that was to take Palanar to the maximum security
prison, they never received their passenger. His pattern got stuck in
midtransport, then deteriorated.
Back on Earth, a security officer stumbled out of the transporter room and
vomited on the floor as a team of technicians showed up, carrying gear and
running. Inside the transporter room they saw a lump of blue and red flesh
and organs heaped on the transporter pad.
"What..happened?" one technician asked, staring at the bloody mess in disgust.
"Palanar...he was scrambled by the transporter," the security commander
said, looking away from the remains. "Where...where is that transporter
operator?"
They looked around in futility, unable to find the missing chief. A
medical team soon arrived and scanned the remains. DNA confirmed the
worst...Admiral Palanar was dead.
Meanwhile, Sloan found himself aboard a Section 31 ship which was outbound
from Earth. The nondescript vessel went to warp, en route to Deep Space Nine.
Sloan had another appointment to keep, with a nosy Starfleet medical officer
named Bashir who was on the verge of making a discovery about the disease
infecting the Founders.
A discovery Section 31 did not want the good doctor to make.
END TRANSMISSION