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Chief Medical Officers personal log:
“Today has seen the most deaths from among the crew, at one time, on my watch since Wolf 359…. Including the captain, Jessica Stratton, my friend. The entire crew has gone into shock and over the past few hours many of them have come to sickbay to view the bodies of their friends and the captain in some attempt to make sense of it all. As the ship is currently without a counselor, the duty falls to me as CMO to help them through this crisis….but … who is going to help me? –Computer pause recording- “
Dr. Wendy Urvand took a few moments to stop crying and resume her log.
“ – Computer resume recording – The death of Captain Stratton is not only a personal loss to myself, to her crew and to STARFLEET … but also that of the XO, her husband Commodore Mike Stratton. I know that Mike will make an excellent captain for the Saint George and I will note that in my report to ‘fleet. I know this isn’t the death that my friend would have wanted. I always pictured her going out in a valiant fight against a foe or else sacrificing herself to save her ship… but I will at least figure out how she and so many of the crew were senselessly killed by a faceless and cowardly enemy. –Computer end recording”
Wendy walked over to the diagonstic bed and began her scans on the corpses. After her third body, she muttered “Son of a … “. She called for a level 5 diagnostic and within moments the results were clear. “Urvand to Commodore Stratton” there was no response; she changed tactics “Urvand to Captain Webster”.
“Webster here” came the reply.
“Tom can you please find the commodore and bring him to sickbay.”
“Right away – Webster out.”
He didn’t bother with asking the computer to locate the commodore; he knew exactly where to go. On holodeck one he found the commodore fighting in the Siege of Harfleur old earth date 1415, France. He knew that beating the snot out of holodeck charactors would be the only way, other than a fifth of scotch, that his friend would be able deal with his grief and loss.
Surrounded by the enemy Stratton was holding his own. “…Tom!...” bellowed the out of breath Stratton, “…grab a sword, we’ve got the French on the run!” Webster picked up a fallen sword and took position along side Stratton “Sir, Dr. Urvand wants to see you in sickbay.” He said between blows. “She asked me to escort you there personally.”
With a vicious stroke, Stratton decapitated the French king, the remaining French broke and ran “YOU COWARDLY BASTARDS!!! YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME!!!” screamed Stratton. Webster looked at his friend through the mud, grime, blood, sweat and tears, he knew that Stratton was not yelling at the French.
“Computer – end program.” Webster put down his sword and looked directly at the now captain “Sir, you are needed in sickbay.” Stratton threw down his sword and removed his helm “I don’t want to go to sickbay … I don’t want to remember her on a slab being treated like a piece of meat.” Webster placed a hand on his shoulder, “I’ll go with you.” Stratton lowered his head and nodded in acknowledgement. Webster said in a low voice “but first a shower and change back into the 23rd century.”
In sickbay Dr. Wendy Urvand was finishing her scans on the last body and was fairly dancing around the room with excitement. Stratton and Webster entered “None of our people are dead!” She said excitedly.
“...What!?!?” asked Stratton.
“The corpses that are on the Saint George do not belong to the crew. These cell signatures match those of the replicators and while they appear to be the age of the crew, the cells are in fact only a few hours old. Just as we can replicate equipment, clothing and food, someone has developed the technology to replicate a body.” Explained Urvand. “These ‘people’ were never really alive, they were replicated to appear dead.”
“So who ever attacked us, kidnapped the captain and all these other people and replaced their bodies to fake their deaths?” asked Webster, “but why?”
“To buy themselves time to get away.” Said a red-faced, furious commodore Stratton through clenched teeth. “But they will find the galaxy is not big enough to hide in.”
The Starfleet officer in him demanded the immediate and safe return of his crew and captain. Deep in his blood he felt the ancient cry of his ancestors and the warrior Scotsmen in his soul would not stop until his people were free and his wife was back in his arms.
Stratton took a deep breath and turned to Webster, “Tom, how many of your pilots are ready for live combat maneuvers?”
“About a dozen, not including myself.” replied Webster.
“Have the modifications on the Fighters* been completed?” asked Stratton.
“My last report from Chief Seaman says that engineering has finished the shield upgrades and the weapons should be finished within the next few hours.” said Webster.
“Excellent! Now we need to find out who attacked and where they are now.” Stratton turned back to the doctor, “Good work Wendy, and let me know immediately if you find out anything else.” With that both men left sickbay and headed for the bridge. In the turbo lift Tom turned to his friend and said “Am I to assume that you’ll be sending the Ice Warriors into action?”
“I’m not certain what our course of action is going to be until we can determine what the other ships defenses are. But I want to have all my options open.” Said Stratton with a gleam in his eye.
“Then I’ll be sure to have my people ready.” said Webster. The doors opened on the bridge Stratton stepped out and Webster stayed.
Stratton walked over to the Tactical station, “Mr. Wantoch, have you finished the analysis of the attack?”
“Yes sir, at 0400 hours a ship de-cloaked off the port bow and hidden in their first shot was a transporter beam that appears to have taken about a third of the crew, those that were in their sleep cycle sir. The second shot was modulated to penetrate our shields and also contained a transporter beam, this one appears to have beamed back the crew that was taken.”
“So they knew how to penetrate our shields. What else did they know about us?” asked Stratton.
“Sensors show that three days ago we were scanned when we passed by the Nottarts nebula, and then we picked up a sensor ‘shadow’ at that point.” Replied Science Officer Schulte.
“No one reported these discrepancies?” questioned Stratton in a low voice, not wanting the rest of bridge to hear him.
“We did not know that we had been scanned because of the high levels of neutrino. Our own scans of the nebula were partially reflected back. After we were attacked we were able to use the readings from that ship and recalibrate the sensors to look for their energy signature. Thus discovering the ‘shadow’ and their original scans.” Said Schulte.
“So exactly what information was scanned?” asked Stratton.
“We’ve been able to determine that they were able to tap into a few of our secondary systems. The replicator logs have all been scanned as well as the holodeck and the crew’s personal entertainment programs such as music, movies and reading material” said Wantoch.
“Okay so they know what we like to eat and how to do the ‘hustle’. Do we know if they took the captain on purpose or if they just happened to get her because she was sleeping at the time?” asked Stratton.
“Unknown Sir.” replied Wantoch.
“Helm, come about and return to the Nottarts Nebula, warp nine.” commanded Stratton “Tom – Wade, I want you two to coordinate with Dr. Urvand, Mr. Webster and Mr. Seaman to find out how to see through that cloak, reconfigure the shields so that we have a defense and figure out how the hell they were able to fake the deaths of our people.” said Stratton.
“Right away sir” came the reply from both men at once.
Stratton turned to the communications officer "Put me on speaker ...Attention all hands, this is acting captain Stratton. Many of us have recently experience the loss of our fellow crewmen... All memorial services are to be postponed until further notice... Dr. Urvand has just informed me that the corpses on our ship do not belong to those of the crew. We have reason to believe that they are still alive; we believe that they have been kidnapped by unknown sources and we are at this time working on their safe return. Stratton out." He looked about the bridge and saw his people nodding with little smiles upon their faces. "Go to yellow alert, inform STARFLEET of our status changes. Helm, what is our ETA to the Nottarts Nebula?"
"At current speed, thirty-two hours, sir." came the reply.
Stratton grinned and said to himself "We're getting our people back."
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