McNamara held on to the top rung of the access ladder that led from a storage room on deck two to deck one with one arm. With the other, he began to work on a lock that kept the bulkhead above him secure.
“I don’t remember reading anything about this in the ship's specs,” Jefferson stated.
McNamara grinned as he continued working on the lock.
“It was added in the refit we had a few weeks ago. We figured out that if the turbolifts were blocked, there would be no way for the bridge crew to get to deck two and access the lifeboats.
“I’m all about nobility but I have no desire to go down with my ship.”
Jefferson chuckled.
“The other one is on the front of the bridge, but I doubt we’d be able to surprise them that way.”
Jefferson nodded. “Don’t dislodge it completely.”
McNamara nodded. After a few moments, he looked down.
“Done. It’s usually meant to be unlocked from deck one, so it was a bit tricky to do from this side.”
Jefferson called over to a couple of his marines and they quickly came to the bottom of the ladder.
“I have to insist that we go first, Captain,” Jefferson ordered.
McNamara agreed and came down the ladder. The two marines then went up it. The top marine pushed the metal bulkhead off and stuck his head into the room above him. The hole led to a small open space just off the captain’s ready room.
The first marine quickly pulled himself up into the room. The second marine followed suit.
The pair checked the side room, then the entire ready room for bad guys before they stuck their heads down into the hole.
“It’s clear.”
Jefferson nods and the rest of the group quickly climbed the ladder. Once everyone is up there, Jefferson looked around.
The ready room is decorated with Bajoran artifacts, wall scrolls, and other Bajoran memorabilia. There are some pictures on McNamara’s desk, most of them being of Meru.
“My daughter, Meru, the one from earlier is Bajoran.”
“Was your wife Bajoran, sir?” Jefferson asked as he looked at the pictures.
“I was never married. Meru isn’t my REAL daughter, just someone I raised from a very little girl.
“I wanted to make sure she never forgot her heritage, so I started learning all sorts of things about Bajor and became hooked. So as often as I can I try and acquire artifacts and such.”
“I’m sorry for intruding, sir,” Jefferson apologizes.
“Don’t worry about it, Lieutenant,” McNamara smiled. “Now, let’s go get my ship back.”
Jefferson looked back to the picture of Meru, then to McNamara, and returned the smile. “Yes sir.”
“Are you married, Lieutenant?” McNamara asked.
Jefferson blushed. “No sir, why?”
McNamara grinned. “Just curious.”
Jefferson continued to blush as he moved into position near the door. The rest of the marines took up positions, ready to storm the bridge.
“Anyone who draws their weapon gets dropped,” Jefferson whispered.
“Aye,” the rest of the marines replied.
“Three... Two... One...” Jefferson whispered.
The marines moved to the door.
It didn’t open.
“What the hell?” one asked.
Jefferson turned to McNamara.
“How attached are you to this door?”
McNamara chuckled. “I’ll miss it but do what you have to do.”
Jefferson grinned and nodded. One of the other marines moved up and quickly placed a Play-Doh-like goo down the center of the sliding doors. He then placed some more along the edges. Once the area around the door was covered in the explosives, and some of it was connected to the goo going down the center, he placed a small receiver in it.
“Back up.” He ordered.
Jefferson and the rest of the marines moved to the back of the room yet stayed in a position that would keep them ready to pounce.
“Here we go.” The forward marine stated.
Hanson scowled.
Only about two-thirds of the remaining guards had shown up to the bridge. Hanson did not know if they had been captured, or if they had just decided to abandon him.
He hoped for their sake it was the former because if it was the latter, he’d have them executed for treason.
The ones that remained had taken up defensive positions on the bridge. Four were at the forward, port side turbolift. Ready to shoot the first thing to come out of it.
Four more were at the aft turbolift. They had already mistakenly shot one of the guards returning to the bridge. Hanson had then disabled the turbolift to make sure no one could come out through them. Being delusional at this point, Hansen did not seem to realize that the non-functioning turbolift might be the reason why more guards hadn’t come to the bridge.
Two guards stood in front of tactical, making sure that Alverez stayed safe. Three stood at ops, one of them tasked with attempting to figure out how to run the station.
The remaining guards stood around Hanson, to ensure his safety. There were only fifteen guards in total on the bridge right now, but Hanson thought that would be enough to handle the current revolt.
Hanson had no idea what was exactly going on, but he quickly got a small demonstration.
An enormous boom shook the bridge. The doors of the captain’s ready room blew outward, taking out the two guards who happened to be standing there. The doors continued their flight across the bridge, impacting several of the guards protecting Hanson.
Hanson dove to the ground as the Sisko marines burst onto the bridge.
“DROP YOUR WEAPONS!” they yelled.
Most of the guards, seeing the overwhelming force running out of the smoke complied, but others drew their weapons on the marines.
The marines began to fire.
The firefight lasted about eighteen seconds, but when it was all said and done, nine Saint Paul security guards were on the deck, stunned.
Alverez, who had ducked behind his terminal, stood with his weapon pointed in the direction of the marines.
“STOP!” he screamed.
The entire marine compliment turned their phasers on him.
“I’ve activated the self-destruct. You let me off the ship, and I’ll send you the code to deactivate it.”
Hanson lifted himself off the floor.
“Take me with you,” he ordered Alverez.
Alverez nodded and moved towards the Admiral. He kept his phaser pointed at the marines. The marines all kept their phasers pointed towards Alverez, and then Hanson.
“Jose, there is no way out,” McNamara said as he walked from his ready room.
“Captain, stay back,” Jefferson ordered.
McNamara ignored the marine and walked forward. He continued till he was standing inches from Alverez, Alverez’s phaser inches from McNamara’s face.
“You can still get out of this, son,” McNamara stated.
Alverez was shaking. He looked to Hanson.
Hanson was moving behind Alverez.
“If we don’t leave, you’ll end up spending the rest of your life in prison,” Hanson said as he walked back towards the turbolift. He pulled on Alverez to walk backward with him.
“He’s not going to take you with him,” McNamara said as he walked with the pair. “He’s using you as a shield. He’d sooner kill you than protect you.”
McNamara thought of the pilot that Sarah had told him was killed right here on the bridge. He thought of the dead man they found in the hallway.
He thought of the people on the planet who could be dead.
“He’s a murderer.”
Alverez continued to shake.
“I – I was wrong,” Alverez cried as they reached the turbolift.
“Computer, active turbolift one,” Hanson stated.
The turbolift opened and Hanson began to pull Alverez into the lift.
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Hanson grinned. He then shoved Alverez into McNamara and the lift doors closed.
Jefferson lowered his weapon.
“Hanson is loose on the ship,” he stated.
Alverez began to cry as McNamara took the weapon from him.
“You never activated the self-destruct, did you?” McNamara asked.
Alverez shook his head.
One of the marines ran over and grabbed Alverez and arrested him. McNamara walked to the operations station as the marines began to arrest the rest of the people on the bridge.
McNamara looked at the terminal. He quickly reactivated a couple of systems, including the internal sensors and one more device that they were going to need.
“Lifeboat seven alpha four is being launched,” McNamara stated. The older man hit some controls.
The lifeboat began to float away from the ship. The thrusters then began to push it towards the perimeter of the nebula.
It suddenly slammed to a stop as the forward tractor emitter on the Saint Paul grabbed the tiny, square escape pod.
“Idiot.” McNamara chuckled.
“Wouldn’t those ships have blown him away once he left the nebula?” Jefferson asked as the tiny craft fired its thrusters in a futile attempt to gain freedom from the Saint Paul’s grip.
McNamara just laughed.
“Maybe I should let him go?”
The aft turbolift doors opened and Sarah walked onto the bridge with a couple of marines.
“Phil,” she smiled.
“What are you doing up here?” McNamara grinned at her. “Go home. Get some sleep.”
“My place is on the bridge here with you,” she stated.
McNamara scoffed and looked to Jefferson.
“Women.”
Jefferson grinned as his communicator chirped.
“Jefferson here.”
“Hey L.T.” The voice on the other end stated. “The ship is completely under our control now. We have twenty prisoners. We’ve also found three deceased.”
McNamara sighed.
“Very good, Corporal,” Jefferson replied. “Secure the prisoners in cargo bay three. Davis and Holt have set it up as a brig. Also, inform the people in the lounge that they are free to return to their quarters.”
“Lieutenant,” McNamara called out.
“Yes sir?”
“Order them to their quarters. Tell them that I said for them to go to sleep and report to duty at 09:00.”
Jefferson grinned. “Yes sir. Did you hear that, Corporal?”
“Yes sir,” the corporal’s voice replied.
Jefferson turned to a few of the other marines.
“Get them down to the cargo bay,” Jefferson ordered about the prisoners. “Then stay and help guard them.”
“Yes sir,” they replied.
Jefferson turned to McNamara. “With all due respect, I suggest you follow your own order sir.”
McNamara grinned. “You know anything about getting the engine start sequence going?”
Jefferson gave McNamara a look that resembled what a kitten who was attempting to understand geometry would give.
“Okay then. I’ll go after I get the restart sequence going.”
Jefferson nodded.
Sarah walked over to McNamara.
“What about the others?”
McNamara looked up from the terminal and placed a hand on Sarah’s shoulder.
“The Sisko, the ship these marines are from, is in the process of rescuing them right now.”
McNamara pointed to the Sisko mission patch on Jefferson’s shoulder.
“As soon as they are done there, they’ll come, clean up those interceptors, and everything will be spiffy!”
Sarah wished she had McNamara’s outlook on life.
“Don’t worry, Commander,” Jefferson turned and smiled at Sarah. “The people doing the rescue are specially trained for just such a thing. They won’t – they don’t fail.”
Sarah nodded.
The aft turbolift slid open and Meru ran onto the bridge.
“DAD!” She yelled as she pounced on McNamara.
“Hey,” he grinned.
“I knew you’d be okay,” she smiled.
“I don’t break promises.”
Jefferson smiled at the reunion. McNamara noticed this and turned to him.
“By the way, Meru. This is Lt. Jefferson of the U.S.S. Sisko.”
Meru smiled coyly.
“Nice to meet you, Lieutenant.”
Jefferson blushed and smiled back.
“Nice to meet you, Ensign.”
McNamara simply grinned as the pair continued to stare at each other.
Gunfire echoed through the now brightly lit hallways of the Chidori United Chemical Defense Production Facility. The occasional short-lived scream attempted to interrupt the gunfire, but the echoing was far too deafening to hear yourself think, much less someone screaming their last breath.
Kio did not like the position that they were in. Once the lights had come back on, they found themselves about 50 meters down the corridor from a squadron of CSS guards. They managed to take out two of them before diving for cover; Kio and Anthony on one side of the corridor, Mike, Xiang, and Yayo on the other.
The CSS guards had also managed to take cover and now there was a stalemate. The CSS would fire at Bravo team. Bravo team would fire at the CSS.
Neither side was hitting the other. Plus, Kio’s team was quickly becoming outnumbered as more CSS guards were called in for back-up.
To make matters worse, it had almost been five minutes since the Sisko had informed the groups that they had five minutes before the Klingon assault could possibly begin.
No, Kio did not like the position she was in at all.
“GIVE UP!” One of the CSS guards yelled at Bravo team.
“YOU FIRST!” Kio yelled back as she stuck her gun around the corner and fired off a burst of three rounds.
Her gun clicked and the slide locked back once the rounds fired. She quickly dropped the empty magazine out of the handle and loaded a full one.
“This is my last mag.” She stated.
Anthony checked out his supply.
“I’ve only got one left also.”
“They know we’re here,” Mike added. “I think it’s safe to begin using our phasers.”
Kio nodded. Unfortunately, the only phasers that they had brought with them were their type two hand phasers.
“Bravo to Alpha,” Kio called.
Rei peaked around a corner and saw two CSS guards standing near a doorway looking around.
“Go,” she whispered.
“We need help. We’re pinned down at grid six-alpha and we’re running really fuckin’ low on ammo.”
“Sisko to all teams,” Minako’s voice interrupted. “Time’s up.”
Rei sighed.
“Try to make your way back out to the beam out point,” Rei ordered.
“What about the hostages?” Kio asked.
Rei looked to the rest of her team. If any of them were about to concede defeat, she could not tell.
“We’re facing light resistance. We will locate them. Get to the beam out point.”
“But Commander-“ Kio started.
“That’s an order, Chief,” Rei almost yelled.
There was a slight pause.
“Aye,”
Rei looked back to Ranma and Shelton. She signed that there were two tangos around the corner. Both Ranma and Shelton nodded and quietly slinked around the corner.
“Hi there,” Ranma called out.
The guards turned around and were instantly knocked backward by the Federation rounds striking them.
Ranma and Shelton swiftly moved up the hallway and to where the guards were. They drug the pair back and around the corner. Once that was complete, they began to move back up the hallway.
Ranma stopped. Shelton nearly walked right into her.
“What?” he whispered.
“I hear voices,” she replied.
Shelton could only murmur in amazement at Ranma’s excellent hearing. He took a defensive position behind the former captain.
“We need to move quickly,” one of the voices said.
Ranma crouched low, ready to pounce. Whoever she heard was coming close and would be rounding the hallway at any second.
Rei, Parker, and Masters came up behind Shelton.
They waited.
Three figures came around the corner.
Ranma pounced.
She quickly took the first two out with a silent, but effective Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken. The third man she grabbed, wrapped her arm around his neck and placed the barrel of her sidearm to his head.
The whole incident took less than five seconds.
Six trailing CSS guards drew their weapons on Ranma. They were matched by Rei and the others pointing their weapons at them.
Ranma quickly pulled her hostage backward.
“DROP YOUR WEAPONS!” she yelled.
“General!” Hassan yelled.
Johansson squirmed, but the grip Ranma had around his neck kept him from moving too far.
Rei noticed two men in black jumpsuits with their hands behind their backs. One was Asian, the other Caucasian. She did not know the Asian one, but she knew the other one.
“Councilman?” She asked.
Brett nodded.
“Where are the rest of the hostages?” Rei asked.
Hassan, standing behind Hideki looked at Johansson.
“The only hostage I see here is the General.”
Ranma looked at the man she had detained.
“Where are the others?” She demanded.
“SHOOT THEM,” Johansson ordered.
“You shoot us, I shoot him,” Ranma growled.
No one moved.
“CONTROL TO ECHO ONE!!!” A man screamed over the radio.
Hassan began to move his hand towards his radio. Rei shifted the barrel of her rifle to face Hassan.
Hassan showed his hands to Rei.
“I’m not armed,” He stated.
“You call for help, you’ll all die,” Rei bluntly warned.
Hassan nodded.
“Echo one.” He replied.
“WE HAVE A MAJOR PROBLEM!” the man in the control room franticly yelled.
Kelta, the commander of the Klingon task force looked to his second in command on the bridge of the Klingon battle cruiser.
“HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?” he yelled; his desire to kill something beginning to get the better of him.
“Twenty minutes as of right now,” the XO replied.
Kelta grinned.
“Decloak the task force,” he ordered. “Don’t fire on the Federation ship unless it fires on us.”
“They’re decloaking!” Minako called out.
“Damn,” Karyn mumbled as she looked to the countdown timer on the view screen that had just changed to 00:00. “Talk about a punctual bunch.”
“We’ve got an ass-load of interceptors incoming from both the nebula and the planet,” Jansen stated.
Shampoo began to ponder the meaning of ‘ass-load' as Karyn sighed and turned to Larson.
The old man simply shook his head and looked back. “Do not fire on the Klingon ships.”
Karyn slouched back in her seat. “Can we beam them all out?”
“No ma’am,” Minako replied. “When the power came back up, the transport inhibitors reactivated.”
Karyn sighed.
“Get the shuttle out of here. Let’s hope the ODPs and the interceptors keep the Klingon’s busy until our people can get to the beam out point.”
“The Klingons are within weapons range,” Minako stated. Jansen looked at her terminal and then to the Captain.
“They’re not targeting us.”
Karyn nodded as Shampoo brought up the tactical display onto the main viewer.
They watched as dozens of small, red dots converged on them from two directions. The two Klingon Birds of Prey began to move into an attack formation and started towards the orbital defense platforms.
Larson eyed the display for a moment.
“The cruiser won’t move in for her planetary bombardment until the ODP’s are neutralized. That should give us a couple of minutes.”
Karyn nodded as Shampoo inhaled deeply.
The interceptors were beginning to break formation. Half were heading after the Sisko, the others were pursuing the older Klingon vessels.
“Fifteen seconds till the interceptors are within weapons range,” Jansen stated.
Shampoo stood and walked up behind Ryouga.
“Defensive pattern Omega Seven,” She ordered.
Ryouga slid back and forth along his terminal entering in the proper commands. The Sisko rocketed forward and began to loop around backward.
“IN RANGE!” Jansen called.
“Fire,” Karyn replied.
Jansen began to fire phasers at the smaller ships as the Sisko became inverted.
The phaser banks on the dorsal side of the ship fired at the interceptors, occasionally striking one, but for the most part missing. The shorter-range phase cannons popped out of their hiding places and began to swivel and fire at the smaller, faster, more agile ships.
“Gamma Nine!” Shampoo ordered.
The Sisko continued to fire at the interceptors, destroying one every so often, as she rolled to port and began to dive.
“Shields holding at 77 percent,” Minako stated.
Karyn looked to the viewscreen and watched the larger Klingon battle cruiser fire torpedoes at the interceptors attacking the Birds of Prey. The two smaller ships had managed to destroy one of the ODPs and were now working on the next one.
They appeared to be taking damage, but it didn’t seem to be serious enough to disable either warship.
The stalemate in corridor seven of the weapons facility had only lasted for a couple of minutes, but it was the longest couple of minutes that any of them could remember.
“One of the ODP’s is down,” The voice from control relayed to Hassan. “The Klingon ships will have the other two down within a few minutes.”
“So, you brought the Klingon’s in for backup?” Johansson asked.
Rei shook her head.
“Those ships are here to destroy the facility. We’re only interested in bringing back our people.”
“Why would they want to destroy us?” Hassan questioned.
“Because you’re selling to a sect that plans on using your weapons to overthrow the current government,” Ranma grumbled.
Hassan grumbled. It was like the corporate types to not care who they were selling to, just so long as they were selling.
Footsteps are heard and everyone turned to see Bravo team rounding the corridor.
Kio’s eyes went wide when she saw what was going on. She raised her weapon, as did the rest of Bravo team.
“HOLD YOUR FIRE, CHIEF!” Rei ordered.
Kio complied but kept her weapon trained on the CSS guards.
“I told you to go to the beam out point,” Rei scowled.
“We were on our way, but heard you guys,” Kio replied.
Rei nodded. She was glad that they did show up. They now had a distinct advantage in numbers.
“Councilman, Commander, please move behind us,” Rei requested.
Brett did as he was asked, but Hideki stayed where he was.
“Commander,” Rei growled.
“I’m not going anywhere. I am not going to be ‘rescued’ while you allow the Klingons to slaughter these people.”
Both Hassan and Johansson looked to Hideki.
“If you want me to come with you, you have to bring them with us.”
“Fine,” Rei stated, worried that the roof was going to cave in at any moment.
“All of them,” Hideki expanded.
Rei looked to Ranma who shrugged.
“They need to leave their weapons behind. Anyone who comes towards the beam out point with a weapon will be shot by the marines and security people guarding it,” Rei explained.
“Can’t we just lower the shielding and beam everyone out?” Shelton asked.
Rei looked to Hideki and Hassan.
“SIR! THE OTHER TWO ODP’S ARE DOWN!” Control screamed.
“They better get us out FAST,” Hassan grumbled.
Karyn and Shampoo watched the final orbital platform fire one last shot, destroying one Bird of Prey. The other fired and destroyed the platform.
Karyn sighed.
“Put us between the cruiser and the planet,” Karyn ordered as the cruiser began to move into low orbit to begin her assault.
“Aye,” Ryouga whimpered as he began to move the Sisko.
The entire fleet of interceptors had been decimated by the battlecruiser and the Sisko. But not without damage. The Sisko’s primary regenerating shield had failed. She was down to her standard shielding, which currently sat at 54 percent.
She would be no match for the larger Klingon cruiser and the remaining Bird of Prey; especially if she couldn’t fire back.
“Admiral, any way you’ll be able to reevaluate our standing ‘no fire’ order?” Karyn asked.
Larson looked at the tactical display.
He sighed.
“No.”
Karyn chuckled nervously. “Well then. Everyone hang on to your asses.”
Shampoo eyed Karyn for a moment. *Nice to see she have sense of humor.* Shampoo thought. *Even if we are about to die.*
“Alpha to Sisko!” Rei called.
“Go,” Karyn replied.
“Change of plans. We’re lowering the shields. We need you guys to beam EVERYONE on board.”
Karyn spun to Minako.
“Last count, One hundred fifty-nine people. Will take at least three cycles using all the transporters.”
“Get the marines and security forces on board first,” Rei instructed. “We’ll have hostiles.”
“Beam to cargo bay one,” Shampoo ordered.
“We’ll have to lower the shields,” Minako reminded everyone.
Karyn nodded.
“We’re in position,” Ryouga replied.
Time slowed for Karyn.
“The battle cruiser will be within range in eighteen seconds,” Shampoo informed the bridge.
“Lower shields,” Karyn ordered.
Jansen lowered the shields as Minako began to transport.
The ship is rocked.
“The bird of prey is firing on us!” Jansen yelled.
Parts of the Sisko on the Master Situation Display began to flash yellow.
“Outer hull breeches decks 14 and 15!” Usagi yelled.
“The first group is on board,” Minako stated.
“Facilities shields are down!” Jansen yelled.
“Ten seconds till the battlecruiser is in range,” Shampoo stated.
“They’re targeting our nacelles!” Jansen screamed.
“ADJUSTING POSITION!” Ryouga replied as he swung the Sisko’s engines away from the Bird of Prey’s guns.
“Second group on board,” Minako stated.
“Five seconds!”
The Sisko rocked hard. The bow of the ship began to flash red on the display.
Karyn inhaled deeply.
“MAJOR HULL BREACH DECK SIX!”
“The cruiser is in range!”
“Target the bird of prey,” Karyn ordered.
Larson looked to Karyn.
“FINAL GROUP IS ON BOARD!” Minako called out.
Karyn swung to Ryouga.
“WARP NINE! ANYWHERE! GO!”
Ryouga punched in some buttons and hit engage. The Sisko exploded in a bright white flash as a massive disruptor charge left the cruiser and headed towards the planet, passing right through the area of space that used to contain the Sisko.
Ryouga ordered the ship to a full stop. The Sisko drifted to that stop somewhere near the middle of nowhere. Where they were didn’t really matter though. The fact that they were alive was good enough for him.
Karyn could not agree more. She looked around the bridge. She had never seen a group of people covered in more sweat before in her life.
Yet as frustrated as they looked; as tired and worn out as they appeared; as scared as they were, every single one of them performed brilliantly.
Karyn looked to Shampoo.
“Go see to our guests.”
Shampoo nodded and headed to the turbolift.
“Damage,” Karyn asked.
Usagi looked at her display and grinned.
“We’ve had worse.”
Karyn managed a chuckle. She turned to Minako.
“No casualties from the Klingon and interceptor assault,” she frowned. “We’re missing three NSO members though.”
“Did they not get beamed up?” Karyn asked.
“I beamed up everything with a humanoid bio-sign,” Minako replied. “They must have been killed on the mission.”
Karyn bowed her head in respect.
“Nighthawk to Sisko,” Kaii called.
“Go,” Minako replied.
“Where’d you guys go?”
Minako shrugged and laughed. “Away. Is it clear?”
“Yeah. The Klingons destroyed everything within 1,000 kilometers of the facility and left. All the interceptors were destroyed as well.”
Larson stood and patted Karyn on the shoulder. “Good work.”
Karyn smiled. “Lt. Hibiki. Please set a course back to the nebula. Warp five.”
“Aye,” Ryouga complied.
“Lt. Kaii. Please contact Lt. Jefferson and advise him that it’s safe to bring the Saint Paul out of the nebula.”
“Roger. They contacted us as well and advise they will need brig space for more than thirty prisoners,”
Larson shook his head in disbelief.
“Make it so,” Karyn stated to Jansen.
Jansen nodded. Karyn turned to Usagi. “Get DC working on the damage.”
“Yes ma’am,” Usagi nodded.
Karyn turned to Minako. “You have the bridge.”
Minako nodded as Karyn began to walk to her ready room.
ONE WEEK LATER – BEJING, CHINA
A young Chinese woman walks up to a table where a lone, chubby Vulcan wearing a gold Starfleet Engineering Uniform sat. His rank pip bore the rank of Commodore.
“You ordered Korean Kim'Chi?” She asked.
“Yes,” The Vulcan replied.
She set the dish down in front of him. “You want spoon or chopsticks?”
“Chopsticks will be fine,” he replied.
The young lady handed him some chopsticks and smiled.
“I have two friends coming, so please come back soon.”
The young waitress nodded and walked off. The Vulcan broke apart the chopsticks and began to eat.
“You started without us?” a voice asked.
“You are late,” the Vulcan replied as he slurped down a mouth full of rice. “And it would not be logical to be hungry.”
Councilman Young laughed as he sat down across from the Vulcan. Salek also had a seat.
The young waitress walked back.
“Do you need a menu?”
“No,” Young replied. “I’ll have what he is having.”
“It’s very spicy!” The waitress warned.
“That’s good,” Young smiled.
The waitress nodded and looked to Salek.
“I would just like some egg drop soup.”
The waitress nodded and walked off.
“Everything has been finalized,” Young stated.
The Vulcan stopped eating and looked up to Young.
“So, when do I assume command?”
“As soon as you get there,” Young replied. “A Starfleet Intelligence ship was kind enough to agree to drop you off there.”
The Vulcan grumbled. “I don’t care for them.”
“Well, we can’t have just anyone take you to a top-secret facility. And people would question why a Runabout flew into a nebula and never came out.”
“You are very naïve if you think that the Lincoln Park Shipyards are still a secret,” the Vulcan replied, continuing his eating.
The waitress walked back and handed both Young and Salek their orders.
Young broke apart his chopsticks and took a bite. He immediately dropped the chopsticks and took a drink of his water.
“She warned you,” Salek mused.
“And you are sure that there will be no suspicion on the part of the Sisko?” The Vulcan asked either oblivious to or ignoring Young’s pain.
Young stole Salek’s water and drank it before continuing.
“Their engines are experimental. There’s nothing odd about the shipyards bringing them back to do an overhaul after a mission,” Young replied. “Besides, they took some damage in their last mission, so they need some work anyway.”
“That is true,” the Vulcan replied.
Young pawed at his rice and chicken dish before taking another bite.
Salek watched him and almost seemed disappointed when he didn’t put on the same show he had before.
“You are certain that your plan will eliminate Saotome and his crew, right?” Salek asked.
The Vulcan nodded.
“I will not fail, Salek. I know what is at stake here.”
*Captain’s Log – Stardate 60725.4. It only took them a week, but the Federation finally came to some sort of compromise with the people running the Chidori facility.
Apparently, both former Councilman Alexander and former Admiral Hanson will be tried in a Federation court, but the Federation will pay reparations for both the guards killed in our assault and the damages from the Klingon assault.
I guess the Ferengi are right. There isn’t any problem that can’t be solved with a little latinum.
The Saint Paul is headed back to be recrewed and sent back out on their next mission. I don’t know if I could serve on an exploration vessel. All that flying with not much to do.
I guess some people like nebulas enough to stop and look at every single one of them.
As for us, we’re back en route to the Starfleet Experimental Design Team’s shipyards for an engine overhaul. I don’t understand why though. The new engines performed swimmingly with not a single problem or abnormality.
Plus, Commander Tsukino’s damage control teams managed to repair all our damage perfectly while in space, so we don’t NEED to go back to a shipyard for that.
I guess it doesn’t really matter though. After that last mission we could all use a break.*
Karyn looked up from her computer and looked around her ready room. She checked the time and saw that the senior staff had just now left their shifts.
She walked out onto the bridge and looked at the next shift’s crew. She smiled at the officer in command and stepped into the turbolift.
“Deck five.”
Karyn rode the turbolift down and over till it came to a stop in the forward section of deck five. She proceeded down the corridor to the entrance of the Sisko’s lounge.
She walked in and looked around. She saw Ranma, Shampoo, Lt. Jansen, Ryouga and Minako (who were sitting close together, which made her smile), Akane, Makoto, and Rei.
She then walked over to the bar and sat down.
Gosnell walked up.
“Good evening Captain. What can I get for you?”
“Do you have any fruit punch?”
Gosnell looked to the replicator.
“I have whatever you want.”
“No, I mean real fruit punch.”
Gosnell scratched his head and began to investigate his cabinets.
“I have this stuff,” he placed a metal can on the bar.
“Hawaiian Punch?” Karyn pondered.
Gosnell nodded.
“What the hell,” she said.
Gosnell grinned and began to open the can. He then poured her a glass.
“Hey,” Ranma stated.
Karyn turned to see Ranma standing next to her.
“Commander,” she smiled.
Gosnell placed the glass in front of Karyn and walked off.
“Why don’t you come and join us?”
Karyn lowered her head. “I don’t think I should.”
“Why not?” Ranma asked.
“I don’t really think I am welcome.”
“Oh please,” Ranma chuckled. “You took my job and I want you to come over.”
Karyn laughed. She turned to the group, who all motioned for her to join them.
“Come on, Captain.”
Karyn smiled and walked with Ranma back to the table.
Rei held up her glass.
“To our captain who led us through another successful mission!”
Everyone else raised their glasses.
“To the captain.”
Karyn blushed and took a drink.
Ryouga could not help himself though.
“Spitting image,” he stated.
This time it took ten marines.