"Future Repeats Itself" By Bryan Williams An Exciting Look At The Melbourne-A's First Mission! Chapter 1 Begin Captain's Log, Stardate: 44767.3 I hereby take command of this fine new ship and her crew. We will set out from McKinley Station shortly, and embark on a set of all new missions and discoveries. This ship will make her predecessor proud, she will make a fine addition to the fleet. Newly promoted Captain Bryan Williams of the starship Melbourne, walked out of the corridor and onto the turbolift. He had just met his chief engineer, Lovat, a Bolian, and toured engineering. He hadn't paid respects to the bridge yet, and was saving the best for last. He quickly thought of the ship that once carried this name, the Melbourne that was destroyed at Wolf 359. He was a commander at the time. He was serving on the Roosevelt, they were boarded, many of the crew were captured, and right before his eyes, they were horribly transformed into those ghastly Borg. He was fighting his way down the corridor, the ship shuddering and falling apart all around him. He had made it from lieutenant all the way up to commander and first officer. He fired his phaser again and saw the Borg drone put up another shield. He quickly reset the phaser again and fired it, hitting the Borg squarely on the chest and then a shower of sparks. The Borg lay dead and he ran, and ran, making sure everyone was on the escape pods. He quickly checked the sensors. Explosions were going off all around him. He guarded his face. The Roosevelt's cover ship had been destroyed. He saw that the Melbourne, and the Saratoga were coming with phasers blasting, trying to get there comrades out before their precious ship exploded. Futilely changing phaser frequencies, trying to blast the tractor beam that was holding the Roosevelt away. The Borg ship paid no attention and fired its cutting beam at the crippled ship. Williams saw the saucer section explode on the monitor, and main power was cut off line. He started running again. Hearing screams of his crew mates as they were violated, and put into a life full of pain. He hated to think what Captain Picard was going through. Having to watch his own fleet being destroyed in front of his eyes. He stopped in front of a view port and saw the Melbourne erupt in a glowing light. Jessica! Where was Jessica?! Jessica was his very good friend all through the Academy, he had to find her. Almost all of the escape pods had been launched. Another thunderous shake hit. Bryan fell against the bulkhead. There wasn't enough time! Besides, Jessica was probably already on one of those pods. Oh God! What if she was already a Borg! No time to think. He quickly got inside the cramped little pod. Six people were already in there, they all relaxed at the sight of their commander. He quickly ejected the pod, hoping no one was lost on the ship. Just as the Saratoga exploded, a chunk of hull flew into the engineering section of the Roosevelt, and then, the turbolift doors opened. He shook his head and walked out. "Good morning, Captain," said Commander Coulon, the ship's first officer. "Good morning Commander. I shall be in my ready room." "Aye sir," said the American Indian. Commander Mark Coulon was about five foot ten, about one hundred and ninety, and sported a frock of black hair that was neatly placed on the top of his head. First impressions of Mark was good, at least from Bryan. He was glad that Mark was his Number One. Bryan walked into the ready room. He glanced around. It was already full of many items he had taken out of storage on Earth. His trombone neatly standing in a corner, a model of the Roosevelt, his computer terminal on his desk, the replicator, many pictures of space, nebula and such, and then, a large picture of his ship emerging from an orbit of a purely blue planet, yellow streaks of light spewing from the sun. He looked at his ship. Funny, he thought, my ship. This is my ship! Her smooth lines, one of the many Excelsior-class ships that were built during the almost seventy years of service. She was an upgrade Excelsior-class ship, like the Enterprise-B. He looked at the dark letters and numbers along her hull. They read: U.S.S. Melbourne NCC-62043-A What a glorious name. He sat at his desk and touched the control button that activated it. Surely Starfleet had made up a mission for this brand new ship. And they had. A planetary survey in sector five-four-three, near the Romulan Neutral Zone. Just then his door chimed. "Come," he called. The doors hissed open to reveal Jessica Classing. "Hello Captain," she said as she looked around. "Nice, I like it. Well, I checked my security console, everything checks out, weapons and shields are all ready, as well as communications." Jessica was the Melbourne's security officer. "That's good, we will be traveling along pretty close to the Neutral Zone. I don't want to be moth balled by a Romulan ship." Said the Captain, making it sound like he couldn't trust Jessica. "Now, now, Captain, you may out rank me, but, I still can intimidate you, so don't make me go to red alert and damage your pretty face." She said with a smile and a hint of sarcasm. "Your relieved, Lieutenant Commander, don't make me throw you in the brig." He said stressing the words just as she had, "Or I'll have to come in with regulations a firing." "Oh no! No regulations! Please Captain, I'll be good." She said, getting on her knees and begging. "Well, all right," he said, as they both laughed. His door chimed again. "Come in," he said. Jessica took her place on the couch overlooking the view port. Just then a Benzite walked in, his air filter attached to his yellow uniform. "Uh-I could come back, if this is a bad time, sir," "No, Commander, you weren't interrupting anything, what do you need?" said the captain, looking at Jessica and smiling. "Uh, um, I-I. thought you would like to know, the last minute modifications are complete, and we are ready to depart. And, of course, welcome to the bridge," "Thank you Mendak, you are dismissed, Commander Classing, I believe it is time for you to take you station," said the captain, retaking his command voice. "Yessir," the three officers walked out of the ready room and onto the central nexus of his ship. "All stations report ready," he called, the thrill of command filled him as he sat in the 'big chair.' Commander Classing took her tactical station, which was behind the captain's chair, a large console, that could be operated by two people. Commander Coulon took his seat that was to the right of Williams, the seat that was directly in front of the operations console, which Mendak took whole-heartedly. The helm was, of course, and as on many ships, to the front of the command area, Lieutenant Marvin, a tan-skinned male, purely American, blond hair, and an average height, manned the station, Captain Williams wouldn't want anyone else piloting his ship than Benjamin Marvin. The helm gave the bridge a 'nice touch' sort of motif. It curved gracefully along the lower level of the bridge, a private little alcove, it was more of a semi-circle, it incorporated navigation systems, the helm, warp and impulse control and readouts (sort of like a backup engineering station), sensors, and a backup communications console that could be reconfigured to be a weapons console. The bridge was filled with workstations where any crew member could work at. Up and to the right of the captain's chair was a rail that separated the tactile, operations, command area and helm from the upper work areas. Included into the rail was a console that could be used with a direct linkage to main engineering. There were also small benches to the right of the captain for guests, or the doctor to sit on. "Helm ready," reported Marvin, his red uniform crisp and polished. He toggled a few buttons to warm up the thrusters. "Ops ready, sensors, computer, all ship board functions online." Reported Mendak, corresponding with the station's control center for departure. "Tactical, security, and communications ready," reported Jessica. "Engineering ready, warp engines and impulse engines on stand by mode," came Lieutenant Commander Lovak's voice. Lovack was another blue alien. But this time he wasn't a Benzite like Mendak, he was a Bolian. "Sickbay ready," came the soft voice of Doctor Hanson's voice. "Very good people," said Captain Williams, pleased with his brand new crew. "Miss Classing, would you please be so kind as to open a channel to McKinley Station's control center," The familiar, 'hailing frequencies open' sound emanated from Classing's console. "Channel open," she said. "Control, this is Melbourne requesting permission to depart," said the captain, really getting into the swing of things now. "Good luck Melbourne I hope that we will see you again soon. It was pleasure to build your ship for you," "Thank you, and we will see you soon, Melbourne out." Said Williams, a wide smile on his lips. The thought of having someone say thank you for building his ship was special. If saying thank you was a good thing, then this ship had been blessed even before she was commissioned. "Release all mooring beams, one-quarter impulse power, and take us out," Bryan had to smile even wider until his face hurt. He, he, Captain (oh what a word captain) Bryan Williams of the Federation Starship Melbourne was finally in command after being the first officer of the Roosevelt for over seventeen years! He was finally out in space, having his own ship to command. The emotion was overwhelming. He saw the ship clear the dry dock that it had been cradled in for over a year. What actually happened was, this ship was already being built before the first Melbourne was destroyed. This ship was actually slated to be the U.S.S. Del Rio, NCC-71331, but was changed from a Starfleet admiral who wanted to keep Admiral J.P. Hanson in mind. Admiral Hanson was the man who had commanded the first Melbourne to her doom. So, the name was changed to Melbourne and registry changed to NCC-62043-A. The Melbourne had some of the latest computers to come out of the Daystrom Institute, and sported a new type of warp core that not only re- crystallized the dilithium crystals, but refined them to make a more efficient warp power regulator, a crystal that could almost generate its own power. It also carried a highly charged form of fluxed plasma, plasma that had been introduced to a new form of refining, one that made it so fluid and rich, that the warp engines purred so softly, that it would lull you to sleep in minutes. The Melbourne had 647 crew members, and 25 decks. It had a maximum cruising speed of warp 9.877, and a type seven shield grid, the newest of the line. So, in a way, the Melbourne had a lot of prototype technology on it. Technology that would be soon spread to the new Intrepid Class starship, slated to come out in 2370. The Melbourne glided out of the dry-dock and into space. They cruised at impulse out of the Terran System, and slid into warp six with a streak of the ship and a bright light. Chapter 2 Captain's Log Supplemental: We have cleared the Terran System and are on course for Sector 543 for our first mission. After our mapping mission is completed, we will set course for Ogden Two. I have yet to be filled in with the nature of our mission, but I am very confident in Starfleet to give us a good mission that will be challenging and educational. Dr. Amber Hanson walked out of her sickbay office and into the bright corridor. She was heading for the Observation Lounge, the Melbourne's place for relaxation, and a place that you could get a drink and chat with old friends. But, all of Amber's friends had been assigned to other ships, and her best friend was now serving as a nurse on the Enterprise. Amber had applied for the job, but when she saw that a spot for a Chief Medical Officer was needed on the newly built U.S.S. Melbourne, she jumped at the chance. This ship's medical database was vast, the latest Starfleet issue of tools and facilities. She was quite happy. She brushed her golden honey hair away from her shoulder and headed for the turbolift, when she realized that she hadn't paid her respects to the captain. So, she altered her course for the bridge. When she reached the nerve center of the ship, all was normal. She asked an ensign where the captain was, and was told the ready room. She walked over to the left side of the bridge and rang the bell. A simple "Come," admitted her in. "Doctor Hanson, what a pleasure it is to see you, sit down please. Would you like anything to drink?" asked the captain politely. "Um, sure, how about a mint julep." She said. "A mint julep? I don't usually see many people drinking those anymore," "Well, I have spent the last two months at New Orleans, and there are plenty of mint julep drinkers. I've grown to like them. And if you think that ordering a mint julep is odd, your pink drink is considerably stranger. What exactly is it?" "Oh, I've been sampling the ship's library of exotic alien drinks. This one was made by the Ferengi, its called a sunrise surprise. It tastes like guava juice with a hint of some strange Ferengi synthehol. Usually, I'd order a tonic water with lime." "I see," she said, taking the green liquid from the captain's hand and sitting in one of the plush, blue chairs. "So Doctor, what brings you to my office?" asked the captain. He didn't know why, but he trusted this person more than his best friend. "Oh just the usual 'say hello to the captain because its the first mission' sort of thing. I was on my way to the observation lounge, when I realized I hadn't seen you." "Well, thank you for stopping by. I was about to take a stroll to the holodeck, would you care to join me?" asked the captain, hoping he could get to know the doctor better. "I'd love to," she stood up and drank the rest of her julep and put it in the replicator so it could be turned back into energy. The captain took her arm and walked out of the ready room and into the turbolift. "Deck eight," said the captain. "So, what program would you like?" asked the captain. "I've always enjoyed my own program, but I don't think its been put in to the computer yet. What do you have?" "Well, as you may or may not know, I play the trombone. So, I have a bar setting, and I usually play along with them. There really isn't any interaction with much more than great jazz stars," "Well, I did play the saxophone when I was younger, but I stopped playing that when I was fourteen." Said the doctor, admittedly shunning her face. "Why don't we try one that was already programmed by the computer?" asked Bryan, he told himself that he needed to make more programs that everybody liked, not just him, in case he got into one of these predicaments again. "Sure, we'll check the computer when we get there." The turbolift stopped and Amber walked out, followed by Bryan. They reached the holodeck control panel and Bryan asked for a listing of all programs. The little console lit up. They both scanned the cosole with rapt attention. "Computer, stop screen," ordered Bryan, and then the little screen stopped scrolling the programs. "Computer load the program, 'Fire Pits of Atrika Three.'" Said Bryan. "Program complete, you may enter when ready," said the computer's female voice. "Fire Pits of Atrika Three?" asked Hanson, not knowing if she would like it very much. "I don't think sweltering heat is an idea of a good time." She said. "I was there when I was just a little boy. When my dad's ship, the Java, I think it was, beamed down supplies to the colony, My Mom, him, and I all beamed down to the surface. I must have only been at least five. I don't remember all of the details, but I do remember that it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Trust me, you'll love it. We all had to wear some bulky environmental suits to go into the pits, but on the holodeck, you can lower the temperature controls." "Okay, I'll take your word for it," she said. "Enter," said the captain. The doors opened and admitted them in. They walked into some kind of locker room. Amber saw the bulky E-suits Bryan was telling her about. "Please put on your environmental suits for your protection, then after you are done, please follow the lighted floor panels to the lobby." Said the tour computer's voice. Bryan and Amber walked out of the locker room and into the lobby. People were sitting on the couches and were looking outside the large windows at the scorched red surface of Atrika Three. "Hello, I am your tour guide-," began the a holographic woman. Bryan told the computer to delete the tour part of the program. Suddenly, the people that were sitting on the couches, and the tour mistress all disappeared. "Now we can go ahead of the crowd, and not be disturbed by them." He said. The pair walked over to a set of doors. One read 'Administration,' the other said 'Launching Bay.' Bryan touched the button for 'Launching Pad.' The doors opened to show a regular elevator car. They walked in and the car began its descent. After a short ride, the elevator stopped. The doors opened to reveal a large bay with little "hoppers." Hoppers were a sort of car, if you will, that took you across the valley to the fire caves. The couple walked over to car 23, and Bryan pushed the touch-pad to open the air lock. The small glass shield opened up. There were four seats per car, Bryan and Amber took the first two. The large glass canopy came down and they heard the faint hiss of air as the lock re-pressurized. Bryan touched the large green button and the automatic piloting system came on-line. The hopper zoomed out of the launching bay. In about five minutes they came to an area that looked lie a huge lot of hoppers. The canopy opened automatically, and the two stepped out. The ground was red and hot. The heat slithered across their black boots. They walked into a small outcropping of rocks and were immediately seated in a small rail car. The car started off and the tour began. Now, the fire caves were a set of three, each one being more spectacular than the last. After the tour was over, tourists could choose to take the other tour to the volcanoes, but Bryan had been to the volcanoes, and it wasn't much fun. The small rail car approached the first fire cave. "Computer, lower temperature to 34 degrees Celsius, for every cave." Said Bryan as the computer beeped with his command. Usually, the temperature in the caves got up to at least 80 degrees Celsius. Thirty four wasn't that bad. Bryan heard the hissing of the gasses and started to see an orange glow take place. All of a sudden, the glow turned into a fiery blast, shooting outward. Yellow, orange and red flames danced about the cave. The walls turned an orange hue, and the skylight at the top of the cave spewed smoke. Bryan could see Amber react with surprise, and she gasped. After the car left the first cave, Bryan could tell that she would have a wonderful time. After the tour was all over, the captain and the doctor walked out of the holodeck doors and headed for Seven-Forward for some drinks. "That was the most impressive fire show I have ever seen in my life." She said. "Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I thought you would like it." Said Bryan as they rounded a corner. They entered the turbolift and Bryan ordered it to deck seven. "So, what's our mission after our mapping mission?" asked Amber. "I don't know, Starfleet is keeping it secret. I think we'll find out at Ogden Two." "Well, if they're are keeping it that secret, then it should be an exciting one." "Yes, I hope so." The lift stopped and they walked into the corridor. They came up to a large set of double doors, beautiful doors. Bryan could tell that it was pure oak. There were small, circular windows that had the Starfleet insignia frosted on. The doors whooshed open. Bryan looked around at the elegant lounge. It was a dark lounge, with the bar being in the left side of the room, almost parallel to the doors. On the other side of the room was the other set of doors, and throughout the room was tables. And the best aspect of the room was the large semi-circumvented window at the front that showed the stars streaking by. Bryan walked up to the bar. A slim, bald headed Deltan was behind the counter. "Hi, my name is Doria. You must be Captain Williams and Doctor Hanson. Welcome to my lounge. What can I get for you?" she asked. Bryan looked into her eyes and saw a beautiful glint in them. She was also very tall. And quite attractive. Bryan was nudged out of his trance by Amber, "Oh, um, I'll have a tonic water with lime, hold the gin." "Okay," said Doria, "And for you?" "I'll have a glass of Andorian Gava Wine." "All right, I'll have it brought to your table." She quickly tapped a few buttons and two drinks appeared on the replicator's stage. She walked out from behind the bar and to the table that was right in the middle of the window where the two sat. She handed them their drinks and walked off. "So, tell me, where were you before you got this assignment?" asked Amber. "Well, I was the first officer of the U.S.S. Roosevelt for eleven years, right up to the day when she was destroyed by the Borg at Wolf 359." "Oh, I'm sorry," said Amber with regret. "Don't be, yes a lot of good people died, but what's done is done. It was sad, seeing my ship go up in a big ball of flames. But now, I have this magnificent ship under my command. Where were you?" "Well, I was serving at the hospital as the head nurse on Aster VI. I was there straight out of Medical School. It was very uneventful, nothing compared to being on a starship, risking your life, being out on the frontier." "Yes, it is quite exciting to think of all the adventures that we will have. Personally, I think we'll be a ship that will be known. Just like the Enterprise is now." "I hope so." She looked out the window. "Beautiful aren't they?" she said looking out at the stars. I could get to liking her. Thought Williams. And the conversation went on. Chapter 3 THE NEXT MORNING, Commander Coulon looked at the face in the mirror and said to himself, "I am the first officer of a ship, finally!" he put on his red uniform and walked out into the corridor. He walked past several crew men who had already been up since the wee hours of the morning. He politely returned the gesture and walked to the nearest turbolift. He pushed the button that summoned the lift to the deck he was on. He heard the lift stop at the door and soon afterward, the doors hissed open. He saw Lieutenant Marvin. "Good morning, Commander," he said. "Bridge," said Coulon, "Good morning Mr. Marvin. Sleep well?" "Yeah, these starship beds aren't that bad. And this red uniform feels good on me. Did you know that I was a science officer on the Naples until I was promoted here? You know, once your in this red uniform, all the others seem, well, boring, I guess." "Not boring, just well, just, well red just feels better." Said Mark. "Exactly!" said Marvin. The lift stopped and they walked out with smiles on their faces. Mark said hello to Mendak and took his seat. Lieutenant Marvin took his place at the helm, relieving a younger ensign. "Good morning, commander," said Captain Williams. "Morning, Captain." He replied. The ship was still cruising at warp six, they were already past halfway there. "We should be approaching Sector 543 in approximately nine hours, captain." Said Lieutenant Marvin. "Thank you Lieutenant," Commander Classing's board beeped at her and she pushed a few buttons to see what it was. "Captain, incoming coded transmission from Starfleet Command. In your ready room sir?" asked Jessica. "Yes, thank you commander," said Williams. He got out of his chair and walked into his office. He sat behind his desk. He took a second to make sure he looked all right and pushed the button on his terminal. The Federation's insignia bleeped on. Then a lady's face appeared on the screen. Bryan immediately recognized her. "Admiral Blackwell, what can I do for you?" he asked, quite perplexed. Perplexed because the third in command of the Starfleet called him. "Captain Williams, I hope your new ship hasn't given you any problems?" "No, in fact, it has performed magnificently." "Good, good. Captain, are you aware with Sector 582?" she asked. Bryan put a frown on, trying to think of what significance Sector 582 might have. "All I know is that it is neutral territory between the Federation and the Romulan Empire." "Correct." She said. "Admiral, is something going on? Are you going to cancel our mission to Sector 543?" "Captain, please switch to your split-screen." Said the admiral. Bryan touched a few keys and the screen split in two, making the admiral look a little more skinnier. All of a sudden a graphic popped up to show a star chart. "Admiral, what is this?" "The blue line represents the Federation, the green line represents the border of the Romulan Empire. You see how our border opens up into territory that we, the Federation and the Romulans claim?" Bryan nodded, "There border is open as well, this means that the Romulans can fly in this territory and not be blamed for entering the Federation, also, the Federation doesn't have any border buoys there to watch for Romulan activity." "Admiral, I fail to see the significance of this," said Williams. "Captain, on the planet Honed VII is a race that has been on the merge into warp drive vessels for over fifty years, a long range sensor buoy picked up an unidentified ship heading at warp speed out of the Honed System. I want you to investigate." The admiral had a look of concern on her face. The graphic on the split screen changed to a satellite photo. "As you can see, those green marks are a disturbance, one of the buoys picked this up, as you can see, there is a star directly in the foreground, the gamma rays that the star emitted showed a shadow like effect, we have positively identified it as a Romulan Warbird. I want you to take the Melbourne to Honed VII and investigate the matter with the Honedians, and see why the Romulans find it so important to violate our territory just so they can get a look at this planet. This mission should be eventful for you, be careful, I don't want a brand new ship to be destroyed on her maiden mission, Blackwell out." The split screen was restored to full, and the Admiral's image was replaced by the Federation logo, and a phrase that said, 'End Transmission.' Williams sat back in his chair and sighed, he could tell this mission was indeed going to be eventful. Jessica Classing looked up from her tactical board and saw Captain Williams walking out of his ready room. He looked spaced out. His eyes were just looking at the ground, and not moving. He was obviously thinking of something. "Did the conversation go well?" she asked, a little shakily. Bryan immediately looked at her, coming out of his trance and said, "Oh, uh, yeah, um, I- um," he walked over to her tactical board and hit the comm button. "Captain to all senior officers, please meet in the conference lounge." "Everything okay?" asked Jessica. "Yeah, everything is fine. Why?" he asked, a little sarcastically. "Liar," she said as she was looking at his face, "I know that look to well to be fooled, I've known you to long," "You'll find out in the meeting, c'mon, let's go." And with that, they walked into the lounge. The conference lounge was decorated with various plants from various worlds. There was a picture of the original Melbourne, facing the new Melbourne in front of a fuchsia nebula, staring at each other face to face. The original Melbourne had carbon scoring marks up and down her hull from the fight with the Borg vessel. The new ship looked at it ominously, like it was excepting the role as the new Melbourne. Captain Williams looked out at the stars from the view port. The conference lounge was directly behind the main bridge. Williams took his seat at the head of the table, to the port side of the ship. Commander Coulon sat to his right, with Jessica Classing behind him. Mendak sat behind her. On the other row, to the captain's left, sat Lieutenant Marvin, Commander Lovak, and behind him Doctor Hanson. "I'm sure you all can't wait to hear what Admiral Blackwell told me. There is a race, the Honedians, for use of a better name, have emerged on the brink of warp drive. But, as there always has, and ever shall be, is a catch. The Romulans know too and since Honed VII is in Federation territory, the Romulans don't have sensor nets or patrolling starships to worry about. We are to go to Honed VII, make first contact, and ask the Honedians if they would care to join the Federation. Of course, we will have the Romulans to contend with. Questions?" "Yes, Captain, what if the Honedians don't want to join the Federation, or what if they want to join the Romulan Empire?" asked Ben. "Well, if they do not wish to join the Federation, then we will have no choice but to vacate the area, if they wish to join the Romulans, there is the possibility of drawing the Federation into war." "Why will it start a war?" he asked innocently. "Because, Lieutenant, if the Romulans take it over, then the Federation won't let our space go to them. But of course the Romulans won't care, and they'll fight for it. Question answered?" he said bluntly. "Yessir," said Marvin. "Anymore questions?" he asked. Everyone shook their heads. "Well, then, best of luck to us on our first, which promises to be an eventful one, mission. Dismissed." Everyone filed out of the room and onto the bridge. Chapter 4 Captain's Log, Stardate: 44787.6 The Melbourne has dropped out of warp on the far edge of the Honed System. We are currently searching for any Romulan ships, or Honedian ships. So far, we have found nothing. We are running under impulse power, and are at yellow alert. Captain Williams sat crossed-legged in his chair. He looked at the almost still stars on the view screen. The Melbourne was slowly lumbering closer to the seventh planet of the Honed System. It had been four hours since they started their journey from the outer ring of the system. So far, nothing but empty space. No Romulan ships, no Honedians, just space and a bunch of planets. Jessica's panel beeped at her. "Sir, I am picking up a ship bearing one- four-one mark seventy-two. It is of unknown design. I would guess that it is a Honedian ship. Shall I hail them?" she asked. Bryan watched the view screen. He saw a steel gray ship appear. It had two warp nacelles tucked in close to its side. The body of the ship elegantly sloped down towards the nose. There was a discernible bridge area towards the back of the ship. He could also identify what looked like some kind of weapons pods. Then there was a customary orange glow in the back of the ship to identify the impulse engines. "No, lets see what they do." Jessica's board beeped again. "They are scanning us. They have raised their shields." She said. Not the perfect way to start out relations, I'm going to play it by ear. Thought Bryan. "Miss Classing, lower our shields to show our good faith." Said Bryan. He saw the momentary blue flash on the view screen that indicated that the shields were now off. "Mendak, do a sensor scan of them," ordered Williams. "Aye sir," he touched his board and stated what he found, "There is approximately 500 life forms aboard. It looks like their warp capability is warp seven point two. Those pods on the outer hull seem to be some kind of torpedo launcher. I am also reading indications of some kind of pulse-drill beam. Nitrogen oxygen mixture, apparently, they breathe the same air that we do." "Thank you Mendak. All right, this has taken long enough. Commander Classing, open hailing frequencies," All of a sudden, Jessica's board beeped ferociously, "Captain, Romulan Warbird de-cloaking off the Honedians flank, they have their weapons charged." Said Jessica with some excitement in her voice. "Red alert, ready phasers! Hail the Romulans. Mr. Marvin, put us in between the Romulan ship and the Honedian ship," Said Williams. The bridge automatically turned dark, with red alert lights blinking on, a low humming klaxon was also apparent. The Melbourne moved in between the Honedian ship and the Warbird. The massive green ship out sized the Melbourne by many times. "The Romulans are firing their disruptors onto the Honedian ship," said Mendak. All of a sudden the view screen blinked from a star field to the bridge of the Romulan ship. "Captain, if you do not depart in one minute I will have no choice but to open fire upon you." "Excuse me, Commander?" said Bryan asking the Romulan his name. "Commander D'Rem, of the Imperial Warbird Klidon." "I am Captain Bryan Williams of the Federation Starship Melbourne. Excuse my bluntness, but you are in Federation territory. I believe that was my line. Leave, or I'll open fire upon you, and what's worse, you'll be facing a charge of war. Leave now D'Rem." "Sorry Captain, but that ship that you are trying to protect is a ship that destroyed one of our long range science vessels. We are at war with the Joran." So that was what their name was, the Joran. "At war? Commander D'Rem-," Bryan's words were cut off by Mendak. "Sir, a temporal rift is forming, a ship is emerging." "Onscreen!" cried Bryan. D'Rem was replaced by a green cloud of vapor and a blur of lights which looked like the running lights of a starship. "Sensor blackout is subsiding, the ship is-," Bryan didn't have to know what ship it was. The ship had bad burn marks on her hull, a large portion of her saucer was sliced open, and it looked like one of the nacelle's was fluctuating. "What the hell?" said Bryan. The ship he was looking at was his, the Melbourne. "Report," said Williams as he looked at his ship emerging from the temporal rift. "The ship appears to be in some sort of temporal flux." Said Mendak, "Possibly from going through the rift." Williams and the rest of the bridge crew watched as the other Melbourne flashed in and out of time. "The other Melbourne is fluctuating in and out of our space-time continuum." Said Mendak, working his board. "Hail them," said Williams "Aye sir," said Classing. "On screen, Captain," "This is Captain Williams of the Federation Starship Melbourne. What is going on here?" he asked, somewhat bewildered. The screen flickered to show the bridge of the Melbourne, with fires flaring, and Lieutenant Marvin slumped over in his chair, his neck broken. Commanders Classing and Coulon were being carried off on stretchers. "Captain Williams," said Captain Williams, a gushing wound on his face, losing too much blood to be on the bridge. Just shows how dedicated to my ship I really am. Thought Williams. "You must destroy that Honedian ship immediately," "Why?" asked Williams. "We are here on a peaceful First Contact mission. We are not here to start a war." "No, you don't understand....you started..ar..you..estroy.dian ship.." The transmission was fading. "Captain, we're losing you," said Williams, "Boost your signal gain. Switch to 132 megahertz," "Its too late Captain," said Mendak, "They have slipped out of our time continuum." "Can you get him back?" asked Williams. "Negative, not without further research of the matter," "He looked pretty bad, I just can't dismiss him and his claim, I want you and Lovak to start on a way to at least talk to him," "Aye sir," said Mendak and headed for the turbolift. "Captain, the Romulan ship is hailing us again," said Commander Classing. "Tell them not now," said Williams. He just imagined it. A smaller Federation starship, telling a huge, battle-hungry Warbird to 'knock-it-off.' D'Rem must be furious now. "Actually, Commander, tell D'Rem to prepare to beam over to the Melbourne. Lower the shields and power down weapons as a show of good faith. Stand down red alert," said Williams. The bridge resumed its original lighting, the whole room becoming brighter. "Commander D'Rem says that he will meet with you, but he wants to bring along three security guards," said Jessica. "That's okay, we'll have security guards as well, I'll be in transporter room three," "Aye sir," "Commander Coulon, you come with me, Commander Classing, you have the bridge." Said Williams, smiling back at Jessica's smile. "Your first time in the 'big chair?'" asked Williams. "Exactly, but don't worry, I won't get your ship all banged up under my watch, I know how you captains are, always worrying about their ship when they aren't on the bridge. Let me tell you something, I am just as good as you are mister, now, get off the bridge and go greet our Romulan guests." "Yes, sir!" said Williams, chuckling all the way to the turbolift. Williams and Coulon entered the transporter room. There was an ensign on duty and said, "Ready for transport Captain, the Romulans have lowered their shields," "Very well, energize," just then, three security guards walked in. On the transporter platform, four shapes took place. Then, their broad shoulders took place, the mark of the Romulans. The blue hallow around them disappeared, and one Romulan stepped forward, apparently Commander D'Rem. "Commander D'Rem, welcome aboard the USS Melbourne. This is Commander Coulon, my first officer. Would you please follow me to the conference lounge." "Of course, Captain. Allow me to introduce my first officer, Sub- Commander Tarkus," said D'Rem as Tarkus stepped forward. Captain Williams, Commander Coulon, Commander D'Rem and Sub-Commander Tarkus walked out of the transporter room and down the corridor, flanked by two Romulan security guards and three Starfleet guards. Williams led them to turbolift and said, "Observation lounge," and the lift whisked them away. The doors opened up to place them inside a corridor. They walked up a ramp and another set of doors opened up to admit them into the colorful conference lounge. Williams took his seat at the head of the table. All the other officers followed suit. All the security guards stood behind their respective captains. "Commander D'Rem. The Melbourne was sent to this sector to make First Contact with the Joran. With your aggressive arrival, that makes my mission very difficult. First of all, how could the Romulan Empire be at war with a race who has just made warp technology? Surely they couldn't that much of a threat to you." "Captain, I will not mince words. The Romulan Star Empire has been in somewhat of a 'hungry' position. The Romulan Empire has tried for years to get the better of the Federation. And each time, we have failed. Every time. Well, except for once, and that was a glorious victory for us. But, we are tired of losing everything. "I have found over the three short years that we have had contact with the Federation that you do not like to have wars. And its your almost equal ability of cunning to that of us that keeps us from gaining a victory from you. Well, Captain, the Romulan people like war. It is our heritage. Sector 582 as you know is territory claimed by both the Romulan Empire and the Federation. Well, we saw the Joran System as worthy of a war, so we started a total war of attrition with the Joran. Hoping, that after we annihilated them, the Federation would see what we are doing and start a war. That way, there would be no treachery to be failed upon. See what I mean?" "I do, and what a plan, if it ever did work. But, you underestimated the Federation's abilities, and now, the Melbourne is here. And now, there is a big problem. I have a duplicate Melbourne that just disappeared from my sensors that claim that the Federation is at war with the Joran. A war that looks like we are losing. And I have a feeling that some how, the Romulans have a strong connection with it. I want to know what your real plan is, and I want to know it now." "Captain, you have no right to speak to me in that tone of voice. And I'm not really afraid of your tiny ship. And like I said Captain, I just told you, there is no treachery here, we want war." "That's a pretty week justification for war though. Knowing you Romulans, there is a hidden agenda. I feel it is in best interest to have a short recess. I will call you when I am ready to talk again. Commander Coulon," said Williams, raising his voice to that tone of command, "Would you please escort our Romulan guests to the transporter room?" "Aye sir," said Coulon as he got up and walked to the doors with the Romulans in tow. "A pleasure Captain," said D'Rem. "The pleasure was all mine," said Williams, lying though his teeth. Chapter 5 WILLIAMS WATCHED D'REM walk through the doors and let out a breath. He touched his comm badge and pulled down his uniform tunic. The communicator beeped telling him the channel was open and said, "Williams to Commander Classing," "Classing here," "How's my ship?" "Just fine, what can I do for you?" she asked. "Get me Admiral Blackwell on subspace, priority one," "Aye sir," said Jessica with a bit of curiosity in her voice. Williams tapped his comm-badge twice, once to close the channel, and once to open another channel. He walked to the door opposite him. He emerged into the corridor that lead to the bridge. "Williams to Mendak," said Bryan as he walked out of the corridor and onto the bridge. "Mendak here," "Commander, how's it coming?" he asked. "We've made some progress sir. But we're still going to need a lot more time," "Well Commander, it looks like your time is going to be cut short, double your efforts, put anybody on the project that you think would be useful, notify me once you're on to something. And hurry," said Williams. Looks like my prediction was right, he thought, there is going to be a war. Williams walked into his ready room, its blue and gray hues welcoming him. He took a seat in his plush blue chair and pushed the button to turn his terminal on. A picture of Admiral Blackwell took place. She looked like she had just been awakened from sleep. "What is it Captain?" she asked, rubbing her eyes. "Sorry to catch you in your sleep, Admiral, I forgot about what time it was on Earth. But, I think that what I'm about to tell you is worth it. We have found the Honedians, and their real name is the Joran. Anyway, that is beside the point. When we arrived in Sector 582, we found a Joran ship. Then, a Romulan Warbird de-cloaked in front of us. All of a sudden, it started to fire upon the Joran ship. I hailed them and they said that the Romulans were at war with them. But, this is even more extraordinary-," "Slow down Captain," she said. "You're telling me that the Romulans are at war with the Joran, and they have just acquired warp technology? That's preposterous! I think that it is some more Romulan treachery." "Admiral, this is even more strange. A short while after the Romulans started to fire upon the Joran ship, a temporal rift opened up, to reveal a battered Melbourne. She looked pretty badly. Looked like she had been through one hell of a fight. Then, she phased out of our space-time continuum. "But, before she disappeared, I was able to make contact with Captain Williams. He told me that the Federation was at war with the Joran in the future. And that's when the other Melbourne phased away. "Shortly after, I asked Commander D'Rem, the commander of the Romulan ship to come over to the Melbourne. Admiral, what I am about to say, is-shocking to say the most. D'Rem told me that the Romulan Empire is tired of losing to the Federation. So, they are not using treachery this time. They are going to annihilate the Joran. And then D'Rem told me that since the Federation would never stand for such genocide in our space, we would respond with force and a war would be started." "Damn," said Blackwell. "I would not take D'Rem's statement that there is no treachery as a lie. So, what are you going to do next?" she asked. "I would take D'Rem' statement that there is no treachery as a lie. So, what are you going to do next?" she asked. "Well, after D'Rem and his party left the Melbourne, I was going to contact you and see what you said." "Captain, for now, I want you to investigate this incident, and when you find any information about this, contact me. In the mean time, I'm sending the USS Triumph, a Galaxy class ship to patrol the border of Sector 582. Call upon them if you need any help. Be careful Captain, the Melbourne's first mission should prove to be a difficult one, Blackwell out," the screen went out showing the all too calm insignia of the Federation. "Damn! How can she just dismiss it like that?" asked Williams to no one in particular. Williams got up and walked to the view port and looked out at the steely coolness of space, and then the glowing green rift. He shook himself from his reverie. He walked out onto the bridge. "Commander Classing, report," Jessica turned her eyes away from her panel on the captain's chair and said, "Commander Mendak has over half of the engineering crew working on a way to get the other Melbourne back. Commander D'Rem has been escorted to quarters on deck eight." "Good, Admiral Blackwell is sending the Triumph to help us in patrol. With all this going on, I have a plan forming in my head, and I think you're the perfect person to carry it out. Would you please join me for a drink?" he asked. "Why Captain. Isn't that a bit un-called for under the circumstances?" she asked. "Well, I think I need some relaxation," said Williams as he chuckled. "What?" asked Jessica. "Well, its funny. We've barely even begun our career out here and I am already needing a vacation from my captaincy. What a position!" he said. "Knowing you, you can get through anything. And besides, I'm always game for a drink, c'mon." she said as they entered the turbolift. Williams looked at the doors of the turbolift as the elevator stopped. The doors hissed open and he saw on the door across the corridor from him that they were on deck seven section four. They had to walk four sections to get to Seven-Forward. Oh well, a little walking would never hurt anyone. When they reached the lounge, the found that it was full of crew members. Williams and Classing walked up to Doria. "I'll have some drinking ale," said Williams. "And I think I'll have a glass of Klingon Fire Wine." Said Classing. Williams looked at her in surprise. "'Klingon Fire Wine?'" asked Williams. "That's quite different than you're regular poison." "I grew to like it when I was stationed on Hakoria, it was a Klingon colony." "I never knew you served on a Klingon colony." Said Williams. "Yeah. It was right before I was posted on the Melbourne." "Huh. You know after we were split from each other after the LaSalle, I never thought that we would ever see each other again. Then, when we were posted together on the Roosevelt, I was overjoyed. Then Wolf 359 hit. I thought that you had died. But there I saw you on one of the evac ships. Then I totally lost track of you. But when I saw that there was a certain Lieutenant Jessica Classing, looking for a job as a chief of security, I grabbed you and you were promoted to Lieutenant Commander." Said Williams, he then looked down at his drink and his face became solemn. "What?" she asked, lowering her head to his, trying to see what was wrong with him. "Well, when the Roosevelt was destroyed, I thought in my head that I would never lose a ship again. But, now here I am, in command of this fine ship," he said, looking around his ship, "And then a temporal rift opens up and I see a ship that is as good as destroyed. That made me think a lot. And now, I am committed to not let things get that way. There's a way Jessica. There has to be a way to save the Melbourne and not plummet the Federation into a war. And now," said Bryan as he looked out at the stars, "I will do anything to stop it, anything." "Well, like I said, Bryan Williams can get through anything. And if you survived all those years on the Roosevelt, then I know you can survive this." "Well, I hope you're right." Said Bryan. "Of course I'm right, when have I ever been wrong?" she asked. "Well, there was that time when we were flanked by some Cardassian warships and you said that-," "Okay, okay, maybe once, but that's all. So, what did she say?" asked Classing. "She said that I have to investigate the 'incident' and she'll leave it in my capable hands. No help from her, no advice. Well, I guess that's what admirals expect of captains, to make their own decisions. Well, I have to get used to this, and I shouldn't be giving myself a bad time because its my first mission as a captain." "Sounds about right to me," said Jessica. "Right now, all I want to do is sit here and drink my drink. After that, I think I'll wait for Mendak to get done with his experiments on how to bring the other Melbourne back." Just then, as Williams took a sip of his ale, his comm badge beeped. "Mendak to Captain Williams," Williams put down his glass and reluctantly tapped his badge. "Williams here," "Sir, I think we have something here. Would you please join us in engineering," "On my way," said Williams. "So much for your relaxation," said Jessica as the two walked out of Seven-Forward. "Really," said Williams as he sighed. When they reached engineering, Williams was astonished at all the crew hurriedly walking about doing their duties. Williams looked at the heart of his ship, the warp drive. Its pulsing blue lights, the low rumble it made. He looked at Lovak's office to his immediate right. The office had a glass window looking out at the warp core. It had panels on the wall opposite the window and a pull down console at the end. There was also a large 'bench' of console's where he found Lovak and Mendak working. He looked at the rest of engineering. The 'corridor' he was in had a table with a schematic of the ship and protruding screens. On the walls, there was more panels. On the left side of the corridor, there was a large panel with a picture of the Melbourne's inside. And then there was the second level of engineering which was a glass floor and a panel bench that was nestled in a corner. And then there was the little boxes of computer nodes and a door that lead to some Jefferies Tubes. And to add it sum it all up, there was bright lighting like on the bridge. "Ah, Captain. I think you should take a look at this." Said Lovak, his blue skin shining in the light. He punched a few buttons to show a sensor schematic of the rift. "This is the rift when the Melbourne flew through." "Yes, how was this rift made?" asked Williams. "Well, sir, it looks like some type of proton build up over-saturated space and a temporal rift opened up. I'd say that that other Melbourne was actually trying to get here and warn us." "The war must be going pretty badly if Starfleet was desperate enough to send a ship back through time to warn us. Anyway, how do we find the other Melbourne?" asked Williams. Lovak turned back to his console. He punched in a few more commands. The schematic changed to show another schematic, this time distorted and twisted, "And this is the rift after the Melbourne disappeared. Look at all the temporal 'pockets' that have twisted themselves around so tightly it drew in the other Melbourne so we couldn't track it. "But, Mendak and I have found a way to find the Melbourne. We saturate the rift with anti-protons from the main deflector dish and theoretically, one of those twisted pockets should come loose. But we have no idea what pocket the Melbourne is in. So, it'll take some time to unravel all of them. In essence, we will be untwisting time." said Lovak. "Fascinating," said Williams. "But is there any way to keep the Melbourne here, in our continuum?" "Yes, all we would have to do after we found the Melbourne, would be to pull it out with a tractor beam." Said Lovak, marveling at his work. "How long would it take to get the main deflector ready?" asked Williams. "I'd say no more than an hour at most. However, we are going to have to evacuate the entire forward section of the secondary hull, and the lower three decks of the saucer section." Said Mendak. "Get on it. Commander Classing, would you please make the necessary arrangements for the evacuation of those sections." Said Williams. "Aye sir," said Classing as she walked away. "I'll be on the bridge if you need me." Said Williams as he walked away from Lovak's office and down to the turbolift right beside the schematic panel. He ordered it to take him to the bridge. When Williams reached the bridge he found Commander Coulon in the captain's chair. "Good afternoon Commander," said Williams. "Anything to report?" asked Williams. "Yes actually. The Romulan ship is being as quiet as a mouse, and the Joran ship has headed back to Joran VII. It took quite a beating. And Commander D'Rem is demanding to speak with you." "Demanding, huh?" asked Williams. "Where is he?" "He's waiting for you in the observation lounge." Said Coulon. "Well, I guess I'll be in the observation lounge, you have the bridge, notify me of anything," "Aye captain," said Coulon as he sat back down. Williams couldn't wait to get in the lounge and listen to a fuming Romulan tongue lash him about he kept him waiting. Not. Thought Williams. He walked in to see D'Rem and Tarkus sitting down with angry looks on their faces. "Captain Williams, I demand to know why I have been kept waiting in your ship for over an hour! We are at war!" "No you're not," said Williams. "Excuse me?!" said D'Rem. "D'Rem, do you actually expect me to hear you say that you're at war with the Joran? I can tell right now, you're lying trough you teeth. Don't give me any of that 'no treachery' business. The whole way of the Romulans is treachery. You live on it. So go ahead and leave. But let me warn you," said Williams, pointing a finger at D'Rem. Just then, his communicator beeped and he answered it, "Williams here," he said. "Captain," said Commander Coulon's voice, "The Klidon has just sent out a tight beam transmission." "Track it and keep me informed," said Williams, "Williams out," Williams returned to his stern expression with D'Rem, "A tight beam transmission huh? What could that be for? A possible call for more ships? Well, whatever it is, I'm not going to worry about it until the time comes." Lied Williams. He does care about what it was. The Melbourne's computer had captured the transmission in time for it to analyze it and try to break it, that transmission could be the ticket out of this mess. Williams again turned to D'Rem and said "But let me warn you, if you go towards Joran VII, I will not hesitate to open fire upon you, clear?" sad Williams. "Very, although I don't think you're ship will be much of a threat." Said D'Rem. Williams couldn't take this Romulan bad mouthing his ship like that. "Goodbye, D'Rem," said Williams. He pointed to the security guards to escort them to the bridge. "Whew," said Williams. Williams was on the bridge, waiting for Lovak to get done with his anti-proton beam. D'Rem and his henchmen had beamed over to the Klidon about fifteen minutes ago. The Klidon cloaked shortly thereafter. Williams just bet that they were heading for Joran VII. Meanwhile, the computer was still trying to break that Romulan transmission. Williams took a moment to breathe. He drew in a breath from his nostrils and let it out through his mouth. The Romulans were up to something, no matter what that sniveling D'Rem said. Williams tapped the button on his command chair to open his captain's log. It said, "Recording." Williams began his log. He smiled at the log of his logs showing only three logs were recorded, making Williams think of how many more there were going to be over the years. Then a grim thought came to him. His smile faded immediately. What if the Melbourne was destroyed with the upcoming war? He quickly pushed aside that thought and began his log: Captain's Log, Stardate 44788.7 The Klidon has cloaked and has moved away. I have a feeling that it went towards Joran VII. If it did, this war could start a lot faster than I had first anticipated. If the Melbourne fires upon the Romulans, then the Romulans will call for back up and the Federation will send their own fleet and I will have started a war. I am formulating a plan to catch the Romulans in the act, and hopefully it will work. So far, Commanders Lovak and Mendak have worked diligently to get the anti-proton beam ready. I am faced with two big mysteries, which I feel in the long run will all come out to one mystery. And I know of one word that can solve it: Romulans. Lovak looked up from his console. He looked over at the warp engine capacity. Good, it was up to 89%. All they needed to do was make the engines go up to 100% and the anti-proton beam would be ready. He tapped his comm badge, "Lovak to Mendak," "Mendak here," "How's the reconfiguration going?" "All right. We need a couple more minutes to reallocate the subspace radio systems to the auxiliary system, and then we should be ready to go." "Good, the warp engine capacity is now up to 90%. I'd give it fifteen more minutes." "Right, I'll be up on the bridge when this is going on, can you handle everything down here?" "Sure! I'm not the chief engineer of a beautiful starship for nothing, am I?" "Gotcha! Good luck! Mendak out," and the channel was closed. "Lovak to Captain Williams," "Williams here," "Captain, we have another fifteen minutes until we're ready to go." "Excellent Lovak! Do you have a minute to speak with me in private?" "Of course sir, I'll be right up," "Good, meet me in my ready room. Williams out," Lovak put Lieutenant Rogers in command of engineering. He then headed for the turbolift. Williams was sitting in his command chair when he put down the PADD that had his schedule on it and headed for the ready room. The doors hissed open to his tranquil office. A few moments later, Lovak entered the room. "Ah, Mr. Lovak. Come in please, sit down," Lovak complied with the request. "Mr. Lovak, as you may or may not know, the Romulans claim to be at war with the Joran. I find that very disturbing. In fact, I have a feeling that there is a larger problem here than we are lead to believe. That other Melbourne says that the Federation is at war with the Joran. I also find this disturbing. So, I am going to catch the Romulans in the act. I am going to catch them doing their treachery before they even begin their attack on the Federation. "And I believe that they have some kind of military build up some where around here. I am sending Commander Coulon and Commander Classing in a shuttle to find anything out of the ordinary. But, of course the Romulans have a cloaking device. Any way we can track them when they are cloaked?" "Well, we could give the shuttle some microtorpedoes. If they detonated one of them in front of a Warbird, it should have some effect and they would be able to detect it." "No, I'm expecting a fleet of Warbirds. I don't just want to isolate one and then go on for the next, that would take to long. Can you give me anything else?" said Williams, rubbing his chin. "Hmm, well, I suppose we could outfit the shuttle with a tachyon pulse. That way, all it would have to do is send out one pulse and they could find every ship there. Since cloaking devices run on tachyons, if we give it an overflow of tachyons, then it should show up on the sensors." "Great, get on it," "Aye sir," said Lovak as he ran out of his office in excitement. He's going to make on hell of an engineer. Thought Williams. "Computer," addressed Williams, it chirped, "Get Commander Coulon and Commander Classing up here," "Acknowledged," said the computer. A few moments later, Commander Classing and Commander Coulon showed up in his ready room. "Ah, good you're here. I have a mission for the two of you." "Oh great," said Classing. "I think you'll like this one. I want you two to take a shuttle to the far side of this star system and track down a Romulan fleet." "Oh, that sounds easy," said Classing sarcastically, "All we have to do is find a fleet of Romulan ships, not to mention the cloaking device. How are we going to get past that? And then we have to make it back here in one piece! Well, hell Captain, why don't you just send us in EV suits?!" "Calm yourself Commander. Lovak is outfitting one of our shuttles with a tachyon pulse that should render the Romulan cloaking device useless. All you two have to do is find the Romulan fleet and come back to the Melbourne." "Okay," said Coulon, "But what if there isn't any Romulan fleet?" "Then there isn't any Romulan fleet and I will have been wrong." "Oh, right sir," said Coulon returning to his stature of calm. "Good, you'll leave as soon as Lovak is done outfitting the shuttle. Dismissed. Oh, Commander Classing, would you please get me Captain Myers of the Triumph?" "Certainly sir," she said as she walked out. A few moments later, Captain Myers wrinkled old face appeared on the terminal's screen. "Captain Williams," he said. "Captain Myers. My crew and I are prepared to get the other Melbourne back within the next hour or so. I also have reason to believe that there is a Romulan invasion fleet somewhere in this system. As for that matter, I am sending out a shuttlecraft to track them down. If my beliefs are correct, those Romulans are going to want a fight. So, would you please come over here and give the Melbourne some cover as we attempt to get the other Melbourne back?" "Certainly, Captain. The Triumph will be there in ten minutes, Myers out," Williams leaned back in his chair. He was finally going to catch the Romulans with their breeches down. He remembered one time on the Roosevelt, they were trying to capture a Romulan Warbird. Well, the Romulans had tricked them that time and got away. A few months later, the Roosevelt was in another deal with the Romulans. And they got away. Not this time. This time, the Romulans would lose so badly, they would go into another period of isolationism. Chapter 6 DOWN IN THE Melbourne's shuttle bay, Lovak and his team were packing up their tools that they used to outfit the shuttle. The doors to the bay opened admitting Commander Coulon and Commander Classing. They walked up to him and said, "Is she ready?" "Ready and waiting to catch some Romulans. I even took the time to upgrade the shuttle's phaser emitters, just in case, and we installed a few electronic counter measures inside the shields to throw off any disruptor blasts." "Great!" said Coulon. He and Classing walked into the shuttle. "Do you want to pilot it, or should I?" he asked. "I was never very good at piloting Type 7 shuttlecraft, I could never get the controls for the pilot down right," she said. "Well, by the end of this mission, I'm sure you'll know how to fly it just fine. You take the copilot seat." Said Coulon as he slid into the pilot's seat. Every time he got into a shuttle, he felt like he had the galaxy at his fingertips. He loved that when he was aboard the Naples, he actually got to pilot it. It was such an experience that he had taken a course in shuttle operations. He punched in a few commands. "Shuttle pre-flight check. Warp and impulse engines online. Sensors online, subspace radio online. Shields standing by, phasers standing by, and our tachyon pulse is ready." Lovak walked up the ladder to the upper booth where the controls for the door were. He opened the space doors. The large door at the end of the bay opened, right after the atmospheric force field engaged, keeping the bay pressurized while the shuttle left. Lovak wondered what it was like back in the old days when they had to pressurize it and de-pressurize every time. He saw the shuttle's warp nacelles light up, a blue glow and a red nose. The shuttle lifted off the bay's floor, and was gliding toward the door. He heard it penetrate the force field and exit into the stars. He smiled and closed the door. He walked out and back up to engineering. The shuttle exited the Melbourne and swung around to the front of the ship, facing the saucer section, rounding the ventral side of the secondary hull, then sliding up towards the saucer. Commander Coulon opened a channel to the Melbourne. "Shuttlecraft Pocahontas to Melbourne," "Melbourne here," said Williams, in his command seat. "We have cleared the ship," "Very well Commander, and good luck, Melbourne out." Commander Coulon took the shuttle to full impulse power. He raised the shields and charged the phasers, and then, he readied the tachyon pulse. And they went on. About five minutes later, Coulon's console beeped at him to tell him that they were on the other side of the system. Right behind the sun. A relatively 'cool' star. Didn't give them much trouble on the way over, the heat shields handled it quite nicely. Jessica was bored. There was no Romulan fleet out here. Williams had really blown the coop this time. I think he's having delusions of grandeur, his first mission as captain, and he's and eager beaver and ready to please any admiral. What a suck-up! She thought. She inhaled and then exhaled slowly. "Well, are you ready to find some Romulans?" she asked sarcastically. "Ready as I'll ever be." Said Coulon. "Engaging tachyon pulse." The pair heard a loud hum and then a loud CRACK! And they saw a blue ring of tachyons shoot out from the ship, in a radius of several thousand kilometers. "Well, if there are any Romulan ships, we should be picking them up by now." Said Coulon. They waited, and waited. Nothing. Not a ship. "Well. Maybe we should move in closer. I was thinking if we don't find any ships, we should move just to the edge where the tachyon pulse should dissipate. What do you think?" he asked. "Sounds good to me," she said. "Is there something wrong Commander?" he asked, that authoritative tone in his voice. "Yes. There is no invasion fleet out here. We shouldn't be out here like a couple of lost Tibalian Dodo Birds. We should be back on the Melbourne helping with the investigation into the disappearance of the other Melbourne." "Well, Lieutenant Commander, this is very important to the mission. If we find the Romulan fleet, the war will be stopped before its even started!" "The other Melbourne said the Federation was at war with the Joran. Not the Romulans. So, why are we worrying about the Romulans?" "I don't know, but Captain Williams has a very strong enigma that the Romulans have a big connection to all this." And the pulsing continued. Captain Williams walked up to Mendak's station to check on the status of the main deflector. Everything looked good. They were up to 95%. Not bad, only a few more minutes. A few more minutes until they found what was really going on. Lieutenant Commander Mendak looked at his plasma shunt. They were almost finished. Just one more tweak to the EPS power tap. There. That was it. They were ready. He tapped his comm badge, "Commander Mendak to Captain Williams," "Williams here, I saw, we're ready, report to the bridge." "Aye sir, I'm on my way," A few moments later Mendak was on the bridge, accompanied by Lovak. "We're in business, sir. The anti-proton blast will burn out the main deflector. But we can repair it after we're done." "Good job gentlemen! Very good," "Sir, the Triumph has arrived. She is taking a position to port." Said Lieutenant Marvin. "On screen," said Williams. The eerie temporal rift changed to show a beautiful, gleaming white Galaxy class starship. Larger than the Melbourne by many times. The only thing bigger on the Melbourne than on a Galaxy class starship was her graceful warp nacelles. Everything else was small. "Very well, tell the Triumph to stand by. We're going to light up the rift. Mr. Mendak, Mr. Lovak, the show's all yours," "Energizing main deflector." Said Mendak. "Tapping warp power to redirected EPS manifolds. Hold on to your seats, it could get bumpy. And, firing!" out in the cool dark calmness of space, the Melbourne and the Triumph hung in space. But right in the Melbourne's main deflector, a charge was building up. And one of the beings inside of the beautiful ship pushed a button that activated the powerful beam, powerful enough to rip up a temporal rift that no one new much about. A blue beam of fierce anti-protons lashed out from the ship called Melbourne. It punctured the eerie green temporal rift, making a blue and green incandescence. It was quite pretty in this empty portion of space. A festival of lights in midst of a black ocean. One twisted element of time was unraveled by the beam. It looked like one of those science experiments that Williams remembered as a kid. One time at a science fair, Billy Groves had made a water tornado, utilizing two large test tubes. He would then grab the apparatus at the neck and twirl it around, making a neat water show. That's what it looked like on the screen, but there was beautiful color added to it. Blues and greens merging together, a rainbow that was so twisted, it needed a beam so powerful-a beam capable of destroying a planet in no time-to unravel it. Quite an experience. Hues of every color erupted through a shock wave when the beam hit the middle of the 'twist'. Onto the next 'twist'. The Melbourne started to shake from the shock wave and the stress on her powerful warp engines. "Shields to maximum," said Williams. Another and another 'twist' was liberated from its twisted hibernation. Each one without a Melbourne. Finally, on the sixth temporal twist, they hit something with a jarring impact. "I'm picking up a signature which could be a ship," said Mendak. "Keep unraveling the twist until the Melbourne is free," ordered Williams. "Aye sir, but our warp engines can't take much more stress. I will have to shut them down if they get within 99% of breach." Said Lovak. "Hold 'em together!" said Williams as the shaking got more intense. "Warp engines at 88% of failure. Engines at 90%, 92%, 94%!" "Hang on!" said Williams. A thunderous shake hit like a giant came up to the Melbourne and punched her straight in the nose. Williams clung to his seat. The jolting stopped and he returned to an upright position. "Temporal integrity at 12%! And falling, a few more seconds!" "Warp engines at 97%!" "Temporal integrity at 9%, 6%, 4%, 1%, temporal twist has been disrupted!" yelled Mendak over the noise of the bucking ship. "Shutting down warp engines, and not a moment too soon!" said Lovak. The whining of the anti-proton beam stopped and the blue line ceased to exist. "Hang on, picking up a severe gravimetric shock wave coming!" yelled Mendak. "Can you find the other the Melbourne?" asked Williams. "Yes, I have it on sensors," said Mendak. "Lock tractor beam onto it," said Williams. Hopefully we can pull it out before the gravimetric wave pulls us in! thought Williams. "Locking tractor beam!" said an excited Mendak. A blue-green beam was emitted from the Melbourne's connecting 'neck' to the saucer and secondary hulls on the port ventral. The beam pulsed through the gravimetric wave, and went searing across to grab onto the other Melbourne. Just then, the shock wave hit the two starships. The mighty ships pushed their impulse engines to the limits trying not to be sucked into the rift. The Triumph's impulse engines hadn't been through as much turmoil as the Melbourne's engines had, so they had a firmer ground. But, all of a sudden, a black streaked hulk of a ship emerged from the rift, undoubtedly the other Melbourne. Just then, a huge gravimetric displacement wave swept through space, ripping the Melbourne's grip off the Melbourne. The Triumph with its fresh systems locked on her tractor beam but with the same effect. The two starships locked both of their tractor beams onto the other Melbourne, doubling the force. It was like a giant tug of war and the mud pit was the temporal rift. But the second burst of gravimetric waves was so fierce, the two starships let go of their mighty grip and bobbed up and down, surfing the proverbial waves. "Where in hell is this coming from?" asked Williams as one of the aft panels exploded into sparks and a jolt shook so greatly most of the people fell out of their seats. "Structural integrity at 31% and dropping, we can't take much more of this!" yelled Mendak. Just then, a third gravimetric wave formed, this time, sucking in the two Melbourne's and the Triumph. The tug of war had been won by whoever or whatever was on the other side of the rift, and the Melbourne and the Triumph would soon find out what or who it was. Chapter 7 ON ABOUT THE fourth time they had 'pulsed' the area, Commander Coulon was beginning to share Classing's opinions. But, orders were orders and they would stay out here until they found something. And on the fifth pulse, Commander Coulon had an idea that they would. But of course, he had been feeling that since the first try. The Pocahontas had arrived at the coordinates for the next pulsing. Coulon powered up the pulse emitter and let it go. He saw the blue ring swim around the shuttle and then cascade out into space. But directly in front of him he saw a green flicker of light, then another and another. The sensors started going crazy. They were calculating that there was fifty, no sixty, seventy-five flickers out there. He focused a high density sensor beam toward those 'flickers.' "I'll be damned," said Coulon. "What?" asked Classing. "I think we found the Romulan fleet," said Coulon. "Let's try it out, shall we?" Coulon switched his modified helm/tachyon console to weapons. He powered up the shields and charged the phasers. He fired a phaser blast at one of the 'flickers'. The 'flicker' changed to a shimmer of green. It then coalesced into a crackling of green energy. The crackling stopped and the wavy composure of a ship de- cloaking appeared in the view port ahead of them. There, a great, big, huge, Romulan Warbird de-cloaked. Right there, looking them in the face. "Oh my-," said Classing as she powered up her weapons board, so she could take over weapons while Coulon took the helm. She was cut off when another Warbird, and another, and another, another, again and again. Thirty Warbirds in all. Then smaller ships started to de-cloak. This time it was forty- four scout ships de-cloaked, extra weapon turrets added onto their hulls. Then forty-one more science vessels with weapon turrets. Then another ship de- cloaked that wasn't Romulan. Coulon called upon the computer for an identification, and it beeped back, "Joran Battlecruiser." "The Joran. How in the hell did they get into business with the Romulans?" he asked. "Well, the Romulans don't have the same directives as us. Most notably the Prime Directive. They don't care about making them grow up before they're ready to." She punched in a couple of commands into her board. "Uh, huh," she said, "I thought so." "You thought what?" asked Coulon as he was bring the Pocahontas around to get back to the Melbourne. "When we first encountered the Joran ship, I detected a sensor signal that was faintly similar to Romulan design. I didn't report it because what was the chance that the Romulans had anything to do with the Joran's ship design?" said Classing, suddenly interested in the mission. "Well, we better get our butts back to the Melbourne, and fast," said Coulon as he jammed the shuttle into full impulse. Just then, there was a tachyon surge, a ship was de-cloaking. A Romulan Warbird de-cloaked in front of them, with their backs to the shuttle, the Warbird then did a graceful turn and met the shuttle face-on. Coulon did a fast ID check of the ship. It had the same markings as the Klidon, D'Rem's ship. Just then, his console beeped at him, telling him that they were being hailed, it seemed they were going to find out what this was all about, with a personal invitation from the Romulans. Williams found himself on the floor of the bridge, he lifted his head, and found he had a splitting headache. "Ohh," he muttered. He looked around his bridge. Vapor spewed from the bulkheads, making an eerie mist on the bridge. A small fire occupied most of the upper consoles. Lieutenant Marvin got up at the same time and touched his head, obviously the same headache as Bryan had. "You okay, Lieutenant?" asked Williams. "Yes, sir," he said as he picked up his chair and sat down and checked on the status of the ship. "We're in bad shape. We have hull breaches along most of the ship. main and auxiliary power grids have been fused, fires reported in engineering, casualties in the hundreds, sickbay is without power. Weapons, shields, thrusters, warp drive, impulse, tractor beam, transporters, almost all vital systems are off-line. Sensors are functioning at 37%." "How's the Triumph?" asked Williams. "They are in almost the same shape as we are," said Marvin. "But with more casualties, mounted close to 500," "That's over half of her compliment!" said Williams. He looked at the view screen, and all he saw was a star field. "Where's the rift?" he asked. "According to sensors, its still there. Captain, I think you should know this. I am accounting for time, and apparently, we are three years ahead of where we were, in the year 2370. This time line must be slightly ahead in time than ours. The exact date is- hang on, I'm detecting a third ship, and a fourth, a fifth. Captain, there is three other ships out there, one with almost the same quantum frequency as us, I'd say that's the other Melbourne." "On screen," said Williams. The empty screen that was focused on where the temporal rift was slipped over to a picture of the battered Melbourne, looking even more battered after the ride back through the rift. Then there was an Ambassador class ship, a Korolev class ship and a Miranda class ship. Well, at least they were Federation starships. Wait a minute, Admiral Blackwell said that the Melbourne and the Triumph were the only ships in the region. And these ships had the looks of battle damage on them just like the other Melbourne did. "Mr. Marvin, where are we?" he asked, bewildered. "According to the computer, we are in Sector 582, but the question is, what time are we in?" he said as he manipulated his console. "Captain, I'd say that we are in the other Melbourne's time line, like what happened to the Enterprise about a year ago." "An alternate timeline, a timeline where the Federation is in a disastrous war with the Joran. Identification on those ships," said Williams. Marvin scrutinized his board, punching in the commands with frustration from the Melbourne's shattered computer. "Computer identifies the Ambassador as the USS Gandhi, NCC-26632, the Korolev as the USS Pavo, NCC-5036-C and the Miranda as the USS Romeo, NCC-26489. All consistent with starships in our timeline. Captain, the Gandhi is hailing us," "On screen," said Williams. The view of the battered ship was replaced by a captain's rugged, war torn face, it definitely showed. From the looks of it, this timeline had had its share of wars. "I am Captain Gleeson of the Federation Flagship Gandhi. Please identify yourself," "I am Captain Bryan Williams of the Federation starship Melbourne. And the ship that is to my port is the Triumph, commanded by Captain Myers. What happened to the Enterprise?" he asked. "The Enterprise was destroyed by the Borg earlier this year," said Gleeson. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Captain what is going on? How did we get here?" asked Williams. "We were trying to get the Melbourne out of the rift, when we detected two other signatures pulling it away from us, so, we pulled harder and we got three ships through here. As for what's going on, I'll tell you later," Just then, Marvin's console beeped frantically at him. "Captain, I'm picking up a ship de-cloaking, a Romulan Warbird! They have their weapons powered and shields raised, and it looks like they won't take no for an answer!" "Romulans? Why would they be in this war?" said Bryan. "Oh!" said Williams as he put his hand to his forehead, "Damn! I was right! The Romulans are behind all this!" "They are probably reacting to our intrusion into their space," said Captain Gleeson. "I thought that this sector was neutral," said Williams. "We lost it in the beginning of the war, c'mon, we have go to get out of here, I'll tell you everything later," said Gleeson as the screen flickered off. It returned to the picture of the Romeo, Pavo and Gandhi. The Gandhi was turning about to get out of this section of space and back to Federation space. The other two ships followed suit. "All hands, battle stations! Mr. Marvin, get us out of here, best speed," The alert klaxons blared again and Marvin said, "Captain, we can only maintain one quarter impulse, but not for long, we'll be sitting ducks!" "Just get us out of here!" said Williams, "Open a channel to the Triumph." "Captain Williams," said Myers. "Captain, as I'm sure you know, the Romulans are out here, the Gandhi is going to escort us back to Federation space, can you make it back under your own power?" "Yes, we'll be limping with you, Myers out," the screen changed to the gliding Warbird. It started to fire upon the Triumph, the ship that was in the last place of the line. Her shields glimmered with impact. It fired back with a pathetic short of phaser energy, barely hurting the Warbird. Just then, the Melbourne, the other Melbourne, banked around and started to fire off her photon torpedoes. They hit the Romulan ship with acute accuracy. The Warbird fired back, blowing most of the Melbourne's port nacelle away. Plasma leaked out of the support pylon, and then, an overloading starboard nacelle let go of it fury and exploded. The graceful, long nacelle blew clean off. Then the secondary hull collapsed into flames. Then the saucer bucked off its interconnecting 'neck' and was sliced in half by a Romulan disruptor beam. It then exploded in orange rage. The Melbourne was gone. No more. No more Captain Williams, no more Commander Coulon, no more Jessica.and no more Melbourne. The Warbird turned its attention to the Triumph again. This time letting go of its weapons onto the battered beauty. All of a sudden, the Gandhi, Romeo and Pavo flew in with phasers blasting, and formed an arrowhead. Their phasers sliced through the Warbird's shields and blew portions of it away. Then it sputtered into flames and turned away, convinced it could not win the fight. The battle was over.for now. Chapter 8 COMMANDER COULON PUT D'Rem onto the screen. The Romulan's face appeared. "Commander Coulon, I'd like to know what you are doing out here with a tachyon pulse." "I had orders to find you, D'Rem. The same person who said that there was no invasion force on the way. Captain Williams' suspicions were correct. You were going to attack the Federation. And now, I have to go back and tell him so he can get a fleet of ships out here and kick you back to your home," "Very good, Commander. But, I'm afraid that I cannot let you go back to your ship. But I can let you go among the stars. Surrender now, or be destroyed," Coulon punched the screen off with a scowl on his face. "Was that such a good idea?" asked Jessica. "Well, either way he is going to kill us. But I have a plan. Have you ever flown warp speed through a solar system before?" "No, but I'm smart enough to know not to do that because its very dangerous. You could over-calculate and be blown to bits." "Well, hopefully we won't be blown to bits. Here we go," Coulon pushed in his coordinates and pushed the 'engage' button. The Klidon fired three disruptor bolts at the shuttle. The three green death sentences flew at amazing speed, but the shuttle streaked away into warp speed. The three bolts kept on flying through space.never hitting their target. The shuttle automatically stopped right in front of the brown planet of Joran. Commander Coulon lurched from the fast stop from warp speed. He was thrown towards the console, and hit his head. He slumped unconscious. Jessica leaned over and checked to see if he was all right. When she found that he was unconscious, she almost cried. How was she supposed to fly this shuttle? She wasn't good at piloting shuttles. Well, there's a first time for everything. And all the while she was contemplating her dilemma, the planet was growing ever larger through the view port. She turned her eyes away from Coulon and looked at the planet. "Oh my-," she said as she looked down at her copilot's console. All she had to do was find the manual control. There! She found it! She quickly punched it in and the shuttle was all hers. She took the 'yoke' a small, circular control that allowed the maneuvering of the shuttle. She swung it up and to port. "Whew!" she cried out loud. She had made it. She looked down at her sensor board and found that the Pocahontas had come real close to bouncing off the atmosphere and then into obliteration. The sensor board beeped loudly. But she didn't need to look at it to tell her what was there, three Joran battlecruisers where right in front of her, just waiting to move in for the kill. I've got to think fast! She thought. What do I do?! What do I do?! She screamed in her head. She put her thumb on the middle of the yoke control and slid it up, telling the shuttle's computer to go 'up' if there was any up in space. The indicator told her that she had gone Z+3 degrees. But, she was now-instead of looking at the Battlecruisers in the nose, now looking at them in the weapons pod. She slid it up to Z+9, well above the Joran ships. She then swung it around to starboard, back towards the planet. She punched in the impulse command and the tiny shuttle took off. She then engaged automatic control. "Computer prepare for atmospheric re-entry." She said. "Ready," said the computer's voice. "Engage," the shuttle tipped its nose towards the planet and they were entering the atmosphere. They dropped until a brown haze filled the view port. Then a blue fizz of energy told her that the re-entry shields had engaged. The re-entry shields were like a heat shield that protected them from burning up during re-entry. They dropped and dropped some more until the ground was visible. She looked at her sensor board and told the sensors to look for a secluded landing spot. That would be hard considering she re-entered the atmosphere right above a large city. The sensor screen put up a map of the city. There was tiny red dots strung throughout the city. Those red dots just happened to be ionic cannons, and they were pointed at her! She slammed the shuttle into full impulse. Just then, four white dots appeared on the screen, and they were getting closer to her! They were enemy fighters! She took evasive action. The shuttle's computer swung the ship to port, and then to starboard. A simple way of losing a lock. But not simple enough. One of the fighters launched a plasma bolt toward the Pocahontas. It impacted the shields, but the counter measures that Lovak had put into the Pocahontas' shield system made the bolt turn off and head for the hills to the west. Lovak had said that the counter measures wouldn't last for long, but hopefully they would last long enough for her to find a safe landing spot. The four fighters ganged up on the shuttle and fired at will. Six of the first plasma bolts shot out of the way from the counter measures. But the next volley hit the shuttle's shields straight on. She lurched forward as the transporter panel in the back of the shuttle emitted a shower of sparks. Then a white pulse of ions came screaming toward the shuttle, hitting the forward shields. The shields wouldn't be able to take much more of this. Just then, one of the plasma bolts hit the ship. The automatic piloting system went off- line. She was helpless, she wouldn't be able to outrun this group of fighters. When she put her thumb on the yoke. She pushed it over to port and the shuttle complied. She made a circle and now she was behind the fighters. She charged the phaser banks. Just then they started to break up, and head back for the shuttle. She pushed the control yoke up and the shuttle lurched up and she was now behind the fighters again, and the phasers were charged. She fired a burst at the middle fighter. She saw it shields blare at the impact. And then she fired at the one next to it. The fighters broke up again and she was now the target. The sensors registered a large building up ahead and to starboard. She turned the shuttle towards the skyscraper. More and more plasma bolts hit the Pocahontas. Right when she thought she was toast, she had arrived at the building. She flew around it. Keeping the fighters busy, when she accidentally pushed her thumb the wrong way and she head for the building itself! She was going to crash! She got out of her trance of fear and jammed the yoke up. She was now climbing the building. She suddenly turned to the right, and the fighter that was chasing her turned with her. It fired again, just as she turned the shuttle to port. Actually, she hit the yoke by mistake and sent it to port. A mistake, but a mistake that saved her life. She turned back towards the building. The other three fighters were coming towards her at fast speed. Her heart started beating loudly and jumped into her throat. She was dead. Right when she got an idea. She looked at the distance she was at. About three kilometers away. She would wait until one. Two, one! She slammed the shuttle upward, just as the three fighters opened up a deadly barrage of plasma bolts, blowing their own fighter to pieces. She climbed and climbed. She brought it down, hurtling towards the remaining three fighters. Hopefully, the phasers were still charged. Closer, closer, closer. She was right in front of the lead fighter. She fired the phasers with all their might. Golden streaks of phasers shot out toward the fighter. Its shields flashed green, then red, then finally white. The phasers pierced through the fighter's hull, blowing it to smithereens. Two down, two to go. The last two lead her back to the skyscraper. They made her think they were going to go right through it when they jutted up and she had barely enough time to save the shuttle from destruction. She fired two shots of phaser at them. Not much damage, but it would get them in the long run. She concentrated her fire on the ship that was on the left. She fired and fired. Its shields blared. She just wasn't causing enough damage! She had to think, and she had to think fast. She re-directed power from the shields to the impulse engines. The shuttle's impulse engines were now at 110% of normal. The Pocahontas leaped ahead of the two fighters that were still scaling the building's wall. She leaked a bit of her warp plasma from the nacelles right onto the fighter when it fired a plasma bolt. It erupted into a fiery blaze. But, it still was with her. Its forward shields must have been strong enough to protect it. She reached the top of the skyscraper. I'm getting pretty good at this piloting stuff! She thought. She looked out the port view port. There was some construction going on on top of the building. Walkways and ladders, steel girders and all the necessities of construction. She turned the shuttle into it, just as the fighter she wanted turned with her. It fired plasma bolts at the construction ceiling, trying to bring debris down on the shuttle. It worked, but the shuttle's shields held it away. She dodged falling debris, girders and walkways that stuck out. Flying like an ace. Well I'm an expert now! She thought. She dodged some more when she saw daylight at the end of the construction, she was running out of room! Suddenly, a brilliant idea popped into her head. Use the fighter's own offense against it! She targeted the phasers at the proposed position of the fighter within a few seconds. Targeted. The phaser mounts on the nacelles would have to make a wide arch. She was going to shoot backwards. All the while dodging everything. She wanted the shot to be as accurate as it could be. But she didn't have the time. She fired the phaser. A yellow beam pierced through the dim construction room. It arched back from the shuttle. Hitting the ceiling, right as the fighter flew under it. Debris fell on the fighter. It dropped down through the construction, bringing down girders and walkways with it. At the bottom of the construction room, there was a large cutting beam, shaped like a spear. The fighter dropped some more, and landed right on the cutting beam. The spear shaped emitted pierced the fighter's hull. Then the fighter's reactor breached, and the fighter exploded. Orange fire plumed up. Cascaded in and out of the building. One more left. The Pocahontas exited the construction room, which was about 137 floors above the ground. The shuttle crashed through the construction wall, bits of debris shooting out with it, and then the flames of the fighter's explosion. But what comes around goes around. The last fighter arched up toward the Pocahontas. Jessica had no idea what to do, right when she remembered the tachyon pulse. She charged it up. It was ready to go. She fired it. A blue ring was emitted from the shuttle. The section of the ring that was at the back of the shuttle headed for the unsuspecting fighter. The tachyon pulse met its prey, destroying it with blue fury. She was saved. She had had enough of this planet. There was no safe place here. She took off back for the cold blackness of space. The shuttle had cleared Joran's atmosphere. And, lucky for her, she was on the other side of the planet from the Romulan/Joran fleet. She set course for the position of the Melbourne. When the Pocahontas arrived at the coordinates, all that was there was empty space and the eerie temporal rift. "Great, now what am I supposed to do?" she said. And all the while, the Romulan and Joran fleet was right on there tail. Chapter 9 WHAT A DAY. Thought Williams. First, we set out from McKinley Station, all ready for our maiden mission, next we have a serious dilemma, and finally, I find myself in a totally different time line. A time line that I don't think I like. For now, the Melbourne, Triumph, Gandhi, Romeo, and Pavo were all cruising at impulse power. They hadn't cleared Romulan territory yet, so they were still on red alert. Out of all five ships, the Triumph had the most. The Galaxy class ship design was made to be sturdy. But when it came up against all of that gravimetric stress, barely any ship can boast about how they weren't damaged. The Melbourne took major damage as well. The only reason why the Triumph succeeded in most damage was because of all the casualties. Five hundred people were injured, twenty three dead. Their doctor must have his or her hands full. I wonder if I can offer any help. Thought Williams. "Mr. Marvin, open a channel to the Triumph," he said. A few moments later, Captain Myers face was on the view screen, "Captain Myers. Now that we are out of immediate danger, I would like to offer some assistance to your medical crew," "Thank you very much, Captain. We have all of our medical team and even some of our civilians with medical experience in sick bay, the shuttlebays, and holodecks. Some help would be greatly appreciated." "Very well, I'll send over all we can spare. Melbourne out. Williams to Dr. Hanson," he said as he tapped his comm badge. "Hanson here, we're a little busy. What do you need?" she asked. "Doctor, do you have anybody available for transport over to the Triumph for medical assistance?" "I can spare maybe thirty of my medical crew, but we have a lot of wounded here as well." "Thank you Doctor. The Triumph is overwhelmed with casualties. Please notify me when the medical team is ready to go. Williams out." He tapped his comm badge again, "Williams to Commander Lovak," "Lovak here," said the Bolian engineer, eighteen decks down. "Commander, how's the repairs to the transporters coming?" "Well," said Lovak as he picked up a PADD that had the transporter repair estimates on it. "The main bio-filter is shot. It'll take about thirty minutes at present rate." "Then put double the people on it, I'm going to need to use it, and soon." "I can put five more people on it, we're busy trying to coax the warp core into not breaching. With the five extra people it should take maybe ten, fifteen minutes," "Good, keep up the good work Commander," "Aye sir, Lovak out." There, things getting back to normal. Williams checked his armchair console. They were still two light years from Federation territory. That would take an eternity to get there cruising at impulse. They had to get warp power up, and fast. That Romulan ship might have told the Romulan high command that there was a band of Federation starships in their space, and then the Romulans would send a fleet for them. With the destruction of the Gandhi, they would have crippled the Federation's flagship, and then it would have to go to another ship. Possibly a ship doesn't fit the role very well. And that could not happen. He opened a channel to the Gandhi. "Melbourne to Gandhi," "Gandhi here, Captain Gleeson," "Captain Gleeson. Could you please talk to Starfleet Command and tell them to bring a repair tug?" "The closest help is the USS Extractor, which is six hours away, I'll order them here. That ship is outfitted to repair any ship in the fleet. It could repair the damage to the Triumph in no time at all. Fixing a Galaxy class ship should be a challenge for them. I don't think they have ever had the chance to fix on of those class of vessels. Starfleet doesn't have any left." Williams was shocked at this. All the Galaxy class vessels destroyed. All six. The Galaxy, the Yamato, the Enterprise, the Odyssey, the Triumph, the Discovery. All six. All gone. And the only one left in this time line was the Triumph, that didn't even belong here. The leaders of the Federation Starfleet. Destroyed without a second thought. "Very well Captain, Melbourne out," Williams was appalled. All six of those glorious, mighty ships. The Melbourne was a damned fine ship, and he loved her, but Galaxy class vessels was like the big brothers to all the other ships. This war had to stop, and he was going to stop at nothing to accomplish that task. Nothing. About six hours later, the Extractor joined the small group. The Extractor immediately started repairs to the Triumph and Melbourne. Within two hours, the two mighty ships were ready. The Extractor got a call from the USS Mazda, which lost a battle with five hungry Warbirds. Amazing. Thought Williams. The Mazda was a fellow Excelsior class ship. Amazing that it could even take on five Warbirds and live to tell about it. The five ships leaped into warp. And now they could regroup and find out what happened in this time line. Jessica took the hypo spray from the med kit. After waiting an hour for Commander Coulon to wake up, she got worried and was going to force him to wake up. She had scanned him with a tricorder. He suffered from a major concussion. She put the hypo to his neck and pushed the button to release the medicine. He stirred and growled in pain. "What a headache," he said. He looked up at her and smiled. "Where's the Romulan fleet?" he asked. "They don't know we're here yet, but they will soon. I tried to land on the planet of Joran, in the process I found a band of fighters. Don't worry, they're dead." "I'm impressed," he said, "You actually piloted this ship?" "Yep. And a damned good job I did of it too. But we have a more pressing matter to attend to. The Melbourne and the Triumph is not here." Coulon sat up in his chair and looked concerned. "The sensors picked up some gravimetric distortions, and a lot of ionic backwash. Let's just say they didn't go in there without a fight," "Go in where?" "The rift. I think they are on the other side. And we have to warn them of the Romulan fleet. It would take us weeks to get to the nearest Starbase, and not to mention to get to Federation space. At warp 2.75, this shuttle's maximum, it would take us three moths and sixteen days to get there. By then, the war may have already been started. And we can't send a message because the Romulans may pick it up and delete it." "Well, then it looks like the only thing we can do is go through the rift. We better start making modifications to the main deflector. Hopefully, we won't be tossed around like that." Three hours later, the modifications were complete. They were ready to try. "Okay, here goes nothing," said Coulon. He charged the anti-proton beam. It was ready. "Cross your fingers," he said. He pushed the button and the deadly beam again pierced the rift. "I'm picking up ionic residue coming from that temporal twist, I'd say that's the one they went through. Hold your breath," he fired up the shuttle's tired impulse engines. Jessica had given them a run for their money during the battle. The shuttle loomed closer and closer. "Entering the event horizon." "Temporal signatures rising to critical. Engaging auxiliary power, we made need it," said Jessica. The Pocahontas plowed right into the cloud like temporal twist. Jessica woke up to find herself on the deck of the shuttle. Good, I'm still alive. She thought. She looked over to where Mark was sprawled across the floor. She put her hand on his back. He looked over to her and smiled. His senses coming back to him, he quickly got up and sat down in his seat. "We're still in Sector 582, just in a different time line. And, I'm picking up two ion trails that fit with the Melbourne. I'd say they found the other Melbourne. I'm also picking up the Triumph's, and three other trails, but they are Federation ships." Jessica checked on her copilot console. She had switched the auxiliary power on before they had entered the rift. Hopefully, that extra energy would have charged the main power system back up to normal. Good, the auxiliary power cells were totally drained, but the main power cells were charged like the air surrounding a fountain emitting positive ions. And with main power online, it meant that the warp engines still worked. "Warp engines still on line. Why don't we follow their ion trails? We may find them somewhere down the road." "Gotcha. The computer has been damaged from our little trip, so I'll have to keep the course going manually. Other than that, we should be okay." "Tell me about manual control. After that battle with the Joran fighters, I'm an ace pilot at manual control." She looked down at the control yoke and smiled. "Warp 2.75 standing by, we can keep this up for 36 hours, then we'll have to power down and travel at impulse. But, other than that, we're ready to go," "Engage!" said Coulon, acting like Captain Williams. The two of them chuckled a bit. The Pocahontas revved up her warp engines. There was a bright blue flash from the warp nacelles. Then there was the ever mystifying time warp stretch, and then a bright flash, indicating that the shuttle had entered warp drive. A few moments later, the Pocahontas' sensors detected some debris. "Can you identify it?" asked Coulon. "Yeah, I can. Just look," said Jessica with a horrified look on her face. She was looking not at her sensor console, but out at the view port. He followed her gaze. He saw a piece of debris large enough to be recognized. It was a piece of a warp nacelle. A warp nacelle inherent to only one type of ship in Starfleet, a nacelle that belonged to an Excelsior class ship. The Melbourne had been destroyed. "I'm detecting weapons residue of Federation phasers and Romulan disruptor bolts." Said Coulon. He looked at Jessica again. "They are all dead," she said. "C'mon!" encouraged Coulon, "It might've been the other Melbourne. Let's press on," he navigated the Pocahontas out of the debris field an engaged the warp engines again. About three minutes later, they came to a point where another ion trail was detected. "Another Federation starship. And I'm picking up five warp signatures. I'd say that they made it to warp. I think we should keep going, until the warp signature stops." "Okay," said Classing. "Okay. Let's go. And don't worry, they are fine, and so are we," and again, they were off. The five starships dropped out of warp in the Altec System. Their destination was Altec II. There was a space dock there where they could get repairs done thoroughly. The Gandhi, Romeo, and Pavo slipped into a stationary orbit. The Melbourne occupied one of the spidery looking space docks. The large legs clamped down over the Melbourne, grabbing the ship in a lock. The Triumph docked with the space dock that was right behind the Melbourne. Captain Williams beamed down to the main city on Altec, the city of Lansing. He met Captain Gleeson in one of the beautiful gardens on the east side of the city. He sat down at a table and ordered a tonic water with lime. Captain Gleeson joined him. "So tell me about what has happened in the past year," said Williams. "Well, it all started with the Borg incursion. We lost 52 ships. The Enterprise included. But the Enterprise was the ship destroyed the Borg ship. Unfortunately, it was caught in one of the Borg ship's tractor beams, and when the Borg ship blew, it took the Enterprise with it. That ship will never be forgotten. Then there was a war with the Cardassians, a very brief war. A war that destroyed almost half of the fleet. We lost the Triumph and Discovery in that war. But, the war was won. Then this war with the Romulans started. We only have 109 ships left. Defeat is inevitable. In the beginning of the war, we lost the Odyssey, which was the new flagship. When she was destroyed, they named the Galaxy the flagship. We just lost her last week. So, they named the Gandhi the flag ship. Ambassador class ships are not meant to be flagships anymore. Their glory days in Starfleet are over. All they are now are the backbone of the fleet. And now, it is the Federation's most heavily armed warship. And yes, it is not classified as a starship anymore, but as a warship. All of our ships are classified as warships now. With the loss of the Melbourne, we have lost the Hasher Sector already. The Melbourne was assigned to it. The Hasher Sector was a strategic sector too. "Starfleet had the plans and the materials to make a line of all new Galaxy class ships. But with the war, we needed to concentrate on smaller, more cost effective ships. Ships we could build in a matter of months. Made mostly of replicators. Then we put a lot of weapons on it and slap a name on it and there you have it. So, we have a fleet mostly compromised of modified Oberth class ships. Oberth class ships aren't made to fight! They are made for scientific research! Its ludicrous! I have suggested to Starfleet Command more than once for surrender, but they keep saying that they want a chance, and that they will exhaust every last possibility until they surrender. "So, you see, we are in bad shape. With the arrival of two more ships, we don't know what to use you for but military service." "The Melbourne will find a way to stop this war, and go back home, with the Triumph with us. This time line must not be continued to exist. We have to figure out a way to stop this time line from unfolding. Stop this war before it is even started! C'mon! We have planning to do!" "Where are we going?" asked Gleeson. "To the Melbourne. Williams to Melbourne," "Melbourne here," "Two to beam up," the two captain's disappeared in two columns of blue mist. Commander Coulon woke up on one of the back bunk's of the shuttle. What had awaken him was an alarm from the cockpit. He got up and sat down in the chair. He checked what it was and found that the warp trail of the ships had ended and an ion trail replaced it. That meant one thing, they had gone into impulse. Coulon checked the starcharts. The system they were entering was the Altec System. He quickly dropped the shuttle out of warp drive. The beautiful streaking stars slurred to a stop. The ion trail lead to Altec III. He quickly went into the back of the shuttle to wake Classing. She arose and they both walked out to the cockpit and saw the most beautiful sight they had seen for a while, the Melbourne, then a gleaming white Galaxy class vessel right behind it. The Triumph. They had made it! Commander Coulon fumbled for the hail button, he finally found it and stuttered, "Sh-shu-shuttlecraft Pocahontas to Melbourne," "Melbourne here Pocahontas. Welcome back, I'm surprised you find us," said Lieutenant Marvin's voice. "Lieutenant, forgive me, but the sound of your voice is the sweetest thing we've heard in a while." "Well, we're here, and I'm sure that Captain Williams will be eager to here from you, cut your engines and I'll bring you in with a tractor beam," "Very well, Pocahontas out," and he closed the channel as the blue green beam locked onto them. They were pulled around to the rear of the Melbourne. They could see the shuttlebay doors opening to admit them in. The tractor beam released them and they glided through the atmospheric force field, and into the bay, then a soft thud and they were home. Commander Coulon opened the door. He was greeted by the smiling face of Commander Lovak. "I see you brought her back in one piece," he said. "Oh no, Commander Classing brought her back in one piece, not me," Lovak looked at Jessica with surprise. He smiles and she said, "I think I've grown attached to that shuttle," "Well, whenever you want to take it out on a spin, go ahead and go for it." he said as the shuttlebay doors closed, leaving the black-star-speckled sky and blue planet behind. They walked out into the corridor. Commander Classing and Coulon walked to the turbolift as Commander Lovak walked in the other direction. "Captain Gleeson, what is a way to stop this war? I mean for us to actually travel back through the rift and get the Romulans-," he was cut off by his door chime, "Come," he said. Commander Coulon and Commander Classing walked through the door and had the biggest smiles on their faces. "You made it back! How did you find us?" cried Williams. "Well, its going to take a while to explain-," said Coulon as he sat down, and began his long story. After Coulon and Classing were finished with their report to Williams, they exited through the door and down to their quarters. Jessica said to Coulon as they entered the turbolift, "I think I need a drink," "So do I. Want to go to Seven-Forward?" "Na. I'd much rather go to my quarters and take a bath. Thanks anyway though. Perhaps later," "Perhaps," said Coulon. Damn! He thought. Mark had noticed almost every male crew member on the ship stopping their jobs to look at her. Jessica Classing was a very attractive woman. And Mark didn't blame them. Who could not fall for that gorgeous face and lovely hair. And not to mention that exquisite body. Well, maybe another time. And just as she vacated the turbolift, he wondered how Captain Williams had averted her for so long. Chapter 10 "I DIDN'T," said Williams. The captain and his first officer were in Seven-Forward, Captain Gleeson had beamed back over to the Gandhi to discuss strategy with Starfleet Command. Commander Coulon had asked Williams to meet him in the lounge. Without anything else to do, and bored of trying to figure out the current mystery, he agreed to join him. He reached the relaxation room and saw Coulon sitting at one of the far tables. He joined him and ordered a drink. He asked what was up, and got the question of, "How did you not fall for her?" "What?!" cried Coulon, so loudly, that one of the couples at the other table looked over at him. "How?" "I secretly kept it from her. There was no way that I could. I mean, just look at her. She'll give you a case of Graladian goose bumps you'll never forget." "I know. It just seems she's as cold as an icicle. I asked her to join me for a drink and she didn't look to enthusiastic. My God! Maybe its me! Maybe I had something in my teeth, do I?" he said, opening his mouth and leaning over the table for Williams to look. "Now you're overreacting," said Williams. "Look, all I can tell you is that Jessica Classing, for all the years I've known her, has never shown a keen interest in men. I can remember three years ago, she liked an ensign on the Roosevelt, and she came really close to making it with him. She got all the way to the deck he was posted on, and turned back to the turbolift. And her excuse for it was that it 'Would not be right. I am a lieutenant, he is an ensign. That would show a lack of ethics.' And that was what she told me. So, good luck if you wish to pursue a relationship with her. Look, I've got a lot of work to do. Anytime, you want to talk though, go ahead and call me. I'll be in my ready room." and with that, he walked out. Commander Coulon took one last final sip of his drink. "Well hell," he said and walked out. Captain Gleeson walked off the Melbourne's transporter stage, and onto the deck. There was an ensign waiting for him to escort to Captain William's ready room. "This way sir," said Ensign Keith Pollock. Ensign Pollock was fresh from the academy and served as one of the bridge crew. He was posted here by luck. He had looked at the list of positions available. He saw that there were various jobs at starbases, and the ever-boring communications stations. Outposts and small science vessels. And only a handful of starships. But, the Melbourne was the only one that was a new ship. And he had wanted since his first day at the Academy to contribute to building up a new ship's reputation in the fleet. Even though his chances of getting a new ship were slim, he at least hoped to be posted to a starship. But a new one was what he really wanted. And when he saw the USS Melbourne on that list, he did everything he could to get on her. And by pure luck, he got the Melbourne, while his buddy got the communications station post that he had dreaded. He walked out of the transporter room with Captain Gleeson and up to the lift. He delivered the captain to the ready room and went back to his post. He loitered at the door to the room for a while, hoping to hear at least one thing that might go on in there. But, not to his surprise, he didn't hear a thing. Oh well, back to servicing the sensors. Captain Williams sat back in his chair and welcomed Gleeson in. He put on a serious face and said, "What did they say?" "They have a plan. And its on the planet's surface. We are to beam down as soon as possible. And they said to bring an away team. Mine is already assembled and on the planet. All we have to do is get yours ready and go." "What are we doing on the planet's surface with two away teams?" "I don't know. All I know is, Captain Webster, the commander of the station has our orders. C'mon, we're wasting time," "How many are we supposed to bring along on this little trip?" asked Williams, a curious look on his face. "Well, I'm bringing five. You can bring as many as you want," "What does your team consist of?" asked Williams, already knowing the answer. "All security, armed with type three phaser rifles and photon grenades." "Oh, how militaristic." Said Williams, "No science, no medical, just security?" said Williams a but blankly. "Captain, I have a feeling that this mission is not some archaeological expedition, this is going to be a task force strike against the Romulans and Joran. That's why I'm bringing along only security officers." "Well, let's go pick my team." Captain Williams got up and walked out of the office. "Commander Coulon, Commander Classing, report to the transporter room for an away mission. Ensign Pollock, report to the transporter room, and bring a tricorder." Pollock straightened up and smiled broadly. This would mark his first away mission since his training at the Academy. His blue shirt made him a valuable addition to any team. "Lieutenant Henley, Ensign Howard and Ensign Keebler, report to the transporter room. I'll meet you there shortly." There. That was a good mix of talents. Commander Coulon would be his liaison if anything happened, and he would be a back up command officer if Gleeson or Williams got hurt. Classing's presence is obvious. Ensign Pollock is a fresh, good science officer, Lieutenant Henley is an excellent command level officer, with training in security as well as command. Ensign Howard was a good medic, and Ensign Keebler was a technician that Lovak had mentioned to Williams once before for outstanding work. And then there was Captain Williams. And those two words are quite obvious. "Lieutenant Marvin," he said, turning towards the helm. "Its your first time in command, you have the ship until I return. Move the ship anywhere Starfleet tells you, and if they tell you to go to battle, you go. And don't let Mendak or Lovak bug you too much. And watch out for that Doctor Hanson, she's a handful at sometimes." "Yes sir!" he said and jumped up. He sat in the command seat and relished every second of it. "Ohh," he said in pleasure, "Nice chair!" Williams and Gleeson smiled and the two of the walked onto a lift and were whisked away to the transporter room. When they reached there, they found the team all ready, attaching phasers to their waste, and on the other side, putting tricorders. Ensign Howard slid a med kit over her body, and affixed a phaser to her waste. The security team was issued phaser rifles, as well as their own personal phaser, and Ensign Keebler grabbed an engineering kit and stepped up to the transporter platform. They were all ready to go. Williams, Gleeson, Coulon and Classing stepped up to the platform and were beamed to the starbase's command area to talk with Captain Webster. The remaining four stepped up and were beamed to an area right outside the base. Ensign Pollock materialized in the midst of a large landing bay of some kind. He looked around and saw the Gandhi's team standing around, talking with each other. They all turned toward the newcomers. "Hi, I'm Ensign Pollock from the Melbourne," he offered nicely. One of the Gandhi's team squatted down as if in a defensive position and sprawled forward with his feet outstretched, and kicked Pollock right in the gut. Pollock whimpered and fell backward. "Never underestimate anyone. Do you hear me?! No one! Anyone could be looking out for you and if you take one step, BAM!!! You're a goner. Or you could be talking to one of your best friends and when you get out of the bar, he puts a phaser to your back and turns you into human dust before you know it. Trust no one! Got that pretty boy?" "Yeah, I got it, just don't be so pushy, we're on the same side here," said Pollock in a defensive manner. All of a sudden, a red blur of light swooped past Pollock and head on into his attacker. The attacker fell backwards, and the blur hit him squarely in the jaw. "All right! That's enough!" said Lieutenant Henley, putting her neck out to show her commanding rank of lieutenant j.g. "If you want a fight, ask the right people. Now, we are on the same side here. We don't need to be fighting ourselves when we have a whole damned empire of Romulans to fight!" "Who makes you the boss?" said the ensign that attacked Pollock. "This does!" she said as she brushed away her red hair and pointed to her rank pips. "Oh! A big lieutenant are we?" said the ensign. "Yes, and you better watch your tongue, ensign, or you might find yourself on a freighter, on its way to Romulus, as Romulan stuffed sausage! Now, the next two words I expect to hear from your squabbling, sorry excuse for a mouth is 'yes, sir,'" she said. "Yes, sir," said the ensign a little hotly. "Good, now what is your name?" she said, never losing her stature. Pollock thought, She'd be a great drill sergeant in the troop corps. "Ensign Brandon Squires, sir. Sorry sir." He said, now cowering from Henley, even though she was at least two inches shorter than him. "That's better, now, let's continue like civilized people, shall we?" and from there on, there was no more problems from the Gandhi's crew. Chapter 11 CAPTAIN WILLIAMS SEATED himself in one of the nice chairs in Webster's office. Coulon and Classing stood behind him, while Captain Gleeson sat in the other unoccupied chair. "Ah, welcome to Starbase Altec. Starfleet has issued new orders for you and your teams." He began, but Williams cut him off. "Excuse me. But do you know how the Joran have become such a powerful foe? Even though they are brand new to the ways of life in space?" "Yes I can, Captain. In fact, your mission needs a bit of background on the Joran for you to succeed. "The Joran are a race new to warp drive technology, yes. However, in the beginning of the war when Starfleet Intelligence was still around, they sent a team to Joran. "The team found that the entire Joran culture is backed up by Romulans. They projected that the Romulans have had contact with the Joran for at least seventy five years." Said Webster. "How did the Romulans know about the Joran? And why did they take them under their wing?" asked Williams. "The Romulans found Joran, like I said, seventy five years ago. Joran, even though it is basically a desert, has many resources. The Romulans were not that strong of an empire seventy five years ago. They needed the resources of this world. Under Joran's dry lake beds, there is a type of mineral that when introduced to a high band EM frequency, will crack. When this mineral cracks, you have a stable base ingredient for making warp coils and disruptor couplings. "The Romulans relationship with the Joran grew and grew, and just three years ago, the Romulans gave the Joran the gift of space flight. Fleets of Joran ships were built. They were never detected by Federation sensors because they were all cloaked. Then, the Joran wanted to build their own interstellar empire. They asked the Romulans for assistance, and then moved into Federation space. And then, a war was started. "But, there was reports from the team that there was some kind of strange signature emanating from the planet's under ground facilities. They never got that far. "Three months ago, a cloaked Federation reconnaissance probe landed on Joran and took intense sensor readings of the subterranean level of Joran. "What it found was appalling to say the least. It found a machine, emanating e-band particles throughout the planet. E-bands as you know can, and have been used in the past by the Romulans for brainwashing. However, the probe was discovered by the Joran and was then destroyed. "The Federation never pursued another look at Joran because of large battles being waged in other areas. We needed our resources centered on ship repairs and planet rebuilding. We even started terraforming three planets close to the Neutral Zone as outposts. But that was eventually stopped because it was too much resources going into it. So, we have three, almost complete planets sitting out there. "And, on the planet of Dicon II, you will begin your mission. Before the Federation stopped its terraforming expedition, we planted a spaceport there, for passersby who needed some assistance. The spaceport is still in operation. There are many freighters going into Romulan/Joran space that are willing to book passage for anybody-even a Federation strike team-for a good price. There are tickets in the high-warp shuttle that you will be taking for you to show to the captain of the freighter. "Now, Dicon II was declared a neutral planet by both the Federation and the Romulans after we pulled out, so you won't have to worry about any trouble if you are spotted there. "Your orders are to take the freighter to Joran, act like you are part of the freighter's crew. You will beam down with thirty crates of weapons. Now of course, we can't smuggle weapons to the Joran, and of course, we can't have twelve people say that they are there to help unload the weapons, that would be suspicious. Three of you will be outside, buying time for everybody else to pop out of our 'weapons' crates and take the cargo room. After that is done, move onto the e-band emitter, figure out how it works, and determine its use. If we are right, if it does brainwash the Joran, then al you have to do is destroy it and the Romulan/Joran connection will stop. Our projections show that within six months, the Joran will realize what the Romulans have done to them, and turn against them. The Romulans will be tied up with their war with the Joran, they'll leave the Federation out of it. "Once you stuff the emitter full of photon grenades, get the hell out of there, and back to the cargo room, the freighter will be waiting for you, they'll beam you up, and then your coming home. "Captain Williams, once this mission is over, you will be ordered to go through Romulan/Joran space and enter the temporal rift, our latest reconnaissance scans show that the rift is becoming unstable and may collapse at any time, so all of you hurry. If you are successful in your mission, the war will be over and we won't have to worry about the Romulans anymore. Once you get back to your own time, its your problem, we have got to rebuild the Federation, and become the Federation we used to be. Good luck, and Godspeed, dismissed." And with that, the four of them walked out and were beamed to the landing bay, where the rest of the team was. "Everybody, you will be briefed about our mission once we are in the shuttle. This is Captain Bryan Williams of the starship Melbourne, his first officer Commander Coulon, and his chief of security, Lieutenant Commander Classing. Now that that is over with, lets board our shuttle." Said Captain Gleeson. All twelve of them boarded the shuttle, Lightning and took their seats. The shuttle's large warp nacelles were tucked under its belly. Williams stepped inside the passenger/high warp shuttle. He looked up and saw that there was a window above him, so he could look up. Everyone was on board and seated. And seated comfortably. This alternate Federation might be war torn, but they sure treated their strike teams nicely. There was a replicator every two rows of seats. The two pilot took there seats in the cockpit and said through the speakers, "Prepare for take off," said the pilot. "Main elevator engaged. Warp engines on line, impulse standing by." Said the copilot. "Launch door opened," The Lightning emerged from the depths of the landing bay. The large launch door slid to the side, hiding itself inside the building. The elevator platform escalated up and to a stop. The Lightning fired its retro rockets, lifting it up, and pointed it towards the north. It took off, and up it went, into the perilous depths of space. "We have cleared the atmosphere," said the pilot. "Setting course for Dicon II, warp eight," he said as he pushed the button to engage. Williams saw the space to the side and above him warp around, and then finally into streaking stars. He started the mission briefing for the others. And then, he closed his eyes and thought, Here I am, a new captain. In this timeline, I'm dead, and so is everyone else on my ship. Hell, I don't even belong here. I think that I am going to go on a simple mission for my first as captain of a starship, and I have a mission to save a Federation that I barely know. And who knows what's going on in my own timeline. I have a feeling that I may not be coming back, like I may be stuck here, in this place that scares me, it scares me.and he drifted off to sleep, dreaming of why he was on this mission. Williams awoke in the shuttle, with someone nudging him in the shoulder, silently saying to him, "Wake up," he opened his eyes and saw the pretty face of Jessica Classing. Ah, what a beautiful sight to wake up to. He thought as he smiled at her. "Bryan, wake up, its time to beam down to the surface. We have to save the Federation now, remember?" "Oh, yeah, save the Federation, duh! How could I forget?" he said as he chuckled at the thought. "What?" she said, querying at his laughter. "Oh, its just that you said 'save the Federation' like it was an everyday job. C'mon let's go, or they will start to get mad, and we wouldn't want that." He said as he got up and stretched. "Oh, of course not," said Jessica as she giggled. They joined the ten others in the back compartment of the shuttle, a compartment that was nothing but transporters. Everyone was ready to go. Williams took a step up and straightened his back, preparing for the tingling sensation of the transporter. Jessica took the pad next to him, and he looked around and nodded at Captain Gleeson and his team of commandos. "Energize," he said. And an instant later, he found himself in a bustling spaceport, aliens of all kinds walking about with their own personal business. Strange, almost fluent music, but still totally alien music filled the whole area. He looked around and found an assay office, a hotel, a travel agency, a bar, a restaurant, and various other stores. Then he saw a bright red sign that read, "Loading Bays," he pointed to the sign and the rest of his crew walked with him. He quickly took a moment to look at his ticket and saw that the ship they were looking for was a Dolarian freighter. Great. Thought Williams, Starfleet has a whole galaxy full of freighters to carry us to our destination, and the pick the Dolarians. It has been rumored that their ships are held together with nothing but spit. He looked at his ticket again and saw that it was for loading bay seventeen. He pointed in the direction and his all to much standing out Starfleet crew followed him. When they reached the loading bay, they were greeted by the captain of the ship. His six arms outstretched, the stench of his Dolarian fish sandwich, for which he had probably had for lunch, going right up Williams' nostrils. And then there was the customary purple coloring of Dolarians. He lifted his snout to show his massive mouth and said in a low voice, "Welcome to the cargo ship Freehoulia I am Captain Gorlia, please, show me your tickets, and we can get going, oh, and before we get under way, I'm going to need your password, please input it into this recorder device so my ship's computer can see if it is authentic." "This is Captain Bryan Williams, authorization, Williams, alpha, delta 592," said Williams. "This is Captain Joseph Gleeson, authorization, Gleeson, beta, 22, beta gamma," said Gleeson as he wrinkled his nose at the Dolarians' stench. Hopefully, the whole ship didn't stink like this. "Please wait here while I check your access codes," said the Gorlia. They waited patiently, and after a few moments, Gorlia returned and said that it checked out. They boarded the creaky ship, all of them wrinkling their noses at the stench. At last, they reached the cargo bay, where they would be staying for their journey to Joran. Captain Williams, Captain Gleeson and Commander Coulon were the three who were going to be the off-loading crew, the other nine got into the crates. Once everyone was situated, Williams gave Gorlia the go ahead. Gorlia wiggled his pig-like snout and went to the bridge of the Freehoulia. The rumbling of the deck plates told Williams that the ship was taking off from the planet's surface. Once the rumbling stopped, he could tell they were in space. Then he felt a surge which could only be the transition into warp drive. The inertial damping fields on this ship must not be in the best condition. And they waited all the way to Joran. Chapter 12 LIEUTENANT MARVIN WAS in his quarters when he got a call from the bridge notifying him that Captain Myers of the Triumph wished to speak with him. "I'm on my way," said he said as he zipped up his uniform tunic. He walked out of his quarters and up to the observation lounge. He had kind of made the observation lounge his personal office, it just didn't fell right to take the captain's ready room while the captain wasn't here. He arrived at he lounge and pushed the button for the view screen. Captain Myers face appeared. "Lieutenant Marvin, I presume?" he said. "Yes, I'm Lieutenant Marvin. What can I do for you Captain?" he said. "Lieutenant," began the captain, "I have reason to believe that your captain, first officer and security chief, as well as the captain from the Gandhi have been ordered on a strike mission to Joran. Now you know the possibilities that they may not be coming back from this mission. And I personally feel that it is a little pig headed of Starfleet to send Captain Williams and his team on this mission. Its not our war! Let them send their own people! Not some people from a different time line, for crying out loud!" said Myers, his old, gray eyebrows wrinkled from the outburst. "Captain, what are you proposing?" asked Marvin. "You don't miss much do you, Lieutenant?" said Myers with a surprised look on his face. "What do you mean?" asked Marvin. "I mean, you can see what I'm going to do. Well then, go ahead. What am I going to do?" asked Myers, clearly expecting an answer. This must be some sort of test. A test to see how I will respond like a captain would respond. He thought. "Well, I must say first that I clearly agree with you. Starfleet had no business sending Captain Williams and the team from the Melbourne on this mission. But, what I would do is take the Triumph and Melbourne to Joran and get them out of there. "But, captain, that may be a little 'pig headed' on our part as well. I mean, we would be saving our people, but what about the war here? Are we just going to let the Federation of this time line perish? From what Captain Williams had told us, the Federation is losing the war. If we take Captain Williams and the rest of the team, we may very well have signed the Federation's death sentence. So, we have got to get some rock solid evidence to go and violate Romulan/Joran territory to save them." "Very good Lieutenant," said Myers. "You've passed my test," Aha! Thought Marvin, I was right! "But we have to find out happened to Captain Williams. And I have a feeling that they did go to Joran. I'm beaming down to the planet's surface to talk to Captain Webster. Perhaps he knows what's going on. I'll contact you as soon as I return. Oh, by the way, how's the repairs to the Melbourne coming?" "Oh, just fine, the weapons systems and all the hull breaches have been repaired, we should be back in order within a few more hours. How's the Triumph?" he asked, equally curious. "Oh, she's doing just fine. We have ninety-seven dead, and almost all the casualties have been taken care of. Everything else is doing fine as well. We should be operational in a couple hours as well. I'll contact you as soon as I return from the planet's surface. Myers out," and he disappeared from the screen. Captain Myers walked down the corridors of the Triumph, the most beautiful ship in the fleet. The fourth Galaxy class ship made, after the Enterprise. The Triumph, unlike her three sisters had different corridors, a different bridge, and a different layout. The Triumph was built as an 'economic' ship. Almost all of the systems that required EPS power taps to power them were put closer to the warp core, so the construction team at Utopia Planitia would not have to lay out a vast network of conduits for the power taps. Making the main transporter rooms all the way down on deck 34. Of course there were transporter rooms in the saucer section, but they were only personnel transporters. Where the other Galaxy class ships had extensive EPS conduits laid out, the Triumph used that extra space as extra computer core memory, more lockers for the crew, and most of all, more room for quarters and suites. Most of the Triumph's saucer section comprised of crew quarters, science labs, sickbay and all he other wonders that starships have. Captain Myers almost protested when he found out that almost all the major items to a starship was located in the engineering section. But, he had gotten used to it, and over the years he had some of the major systems switched to closer areas. He finally emerged on deck 34 and entered the transporter room. He told the ensign on duty to beam him to the starbase command center. He heard the transporter warm up. Then he felt the soothing tingling feeling, then a blue wash over his eyes of what seemed to him, dancing water, then the blue wash faded and he found himself in one of the nicely decorated corridors of Starbase Altec. He looked around and located a sign telling him where everything was. It read: Mess Hall> Launching Bay> Sickbay> He quickly turned around to the left and headed for the Captain Webster's office. He located it, and instead of an automatic door, it actually had a door knob. Myers took a moment to look around and found that this whole starbase was a bit ornate. He turned the antique knob and remembered to knock. He put a fist together and knock three times on the wooden door. "Come in," said a voice. He then reached for the knob and walked in. Plants occupied every spare corner of the office. There was a large wooden desk cradled in between the plants, and two, very velvety burgundy chairs. This whole starbase was colored in some shade of dark red. It was quite pretty. "Captain Webster, I have a few questions for you," said Myers. "Uh, you must be-," said Webster, not knowing exactly who Myers was. "Oh, um, sorry, I'm Captain Hans Myers of the Starship Triumph. I am one of the ships from the 'other side.'" Said Myers. "Oh, come in, come in Captain. Please sit down, would you care for a drink? I have a pot of freshly brewed Colombian coffee, straight from Earth." He said. Captain Webster was a very bright and happy person, he didn't look like he would be one of the most war hardened commanders in the fleet like Gleeson had made him out to be. "Uh, sure," said Myers as Webster poured a mug for him and put the steaming brew right in front of his face. "Captain Webster, as you know, and as I know, Captain Williams and Captain Gleeson have gone on a mission to somewhere. I'd like to know where." Said Myers quite bluntly. "That information is classified," said Webster, still the bright smile on his face, taking a sip of coffee. He swallowed and then said, "You'd have to have a level nine security code." "Well, I didn't become a captain of a Galaxy class starship for nothing, I have a level nine security code." Said Myers, like he had just caught the mouse. "Well then, yes, they did go on a mission, a mission to Joran. And they should be back within a few days." Said Webster, still with that damned smile. "What is their mission?" asked Myers a bit daringly. Webster put down his mug, wiped the smile from his face and became serious. Myers put on the same exact smile that Webster had had on, and took a sip of coffee, playing the younger captain like a first year cadet. "Their mission was to infiltrate the Joran homeworld and find out what this e-band emitter does, and if possible destroy it. Them they are to return to Dicon II where one of our shuttles will pick them up and bring them here. "Then, the Triumph and the Melbourne will be escorted through Romulan/Joran territory to the rift, and you may go home." Said Webster. Myers took another sip of coffee, "Mmm, that is good coffee. But, just out of curiosity, why did they send Captain Williams and his team? This is not our war. Why should we help you fight it? Can I have another cup?" he said as he drank the last sip from the mug, "Ahhh, damned good coffee." Said Myers, going in for the kill. "Starfleet felt that Captain Williams' expertise on the Joran would be useful," said Webster, poring a large mug for Myers. Webster opened up a drawer of his desk and brought out a flask. He opened it up and pored some whiskey into his coffee. "What?!" said Myers, "Captain Williams doesn't know anything about the Joran, you have told him most of what he knows! Oh! I see, this is a cover up! You had better tell me what is going on here, or you'll find yourself mopping floors instead of commanding a starbase!" snapped Myers. "Hey! Wait a minute! I'm a captain too!" said Webster. "Yes, but I have been a captain for thirty four years. And that, my friend, out ranks you. Now, tell me, why did Starfleet send Captain Williams? Did I tell you that this is great coffee?" said Myers. "Captain Williams, as you know was sent on the mission to investigate the Joran three years ago, just like in your time line. All the same events happened, just like they did here, the Triumph was here, everything! But, this is the first time that a temporal rift has opened up. We wanted to know why this rift opened up, and to our surprise, it was created by our Melbourne and our Captain Williams. Then, shortly thereafter, the other Melbourne and the Triumph showed up, claiming to be from another time line. "There is one thing that I kept from you and Captain Williams. Just before Captain Williams and the Melbourne created the temporal rift, he sent a message buoy to Federation space. There was a message in that buoy that told his whole plan! And do you know what that plan was? He was defecting from this time line! He could not live with himself for losing that sector and all the lives that lived on the planets in that sector. Billions upon billions were killed by the Romulans." Said Webster. "Interesting story, but that still doesn't tell me anything about why my Captain Williams is on this mission!" yelled Myers. "I am going to continue, oh elder Captain. Also in that message, Captain Williams said that when he got to the other time line, he would actually start the war with the Romulans and the Joran. All of that e-band brainwashing stuff was just a ruse, a ruse to get him to go to Joran. He-," said Webster as he was cut off by Myers. "Wait a minute. You're telling me that Captain Williams wanted to start the war in my time line? Why? For what?" said Myers, putting down the coffee and listening to this story. "There is another little part to this that is very important to this discussion. The Melbourne was also given the extra task of coming up with a weapon that could detect cloaked vessels. Once this weapon detected a cloaked ship, it would send an EM pulse toward the ship, disabling the ship's systems. They could cripple a ship with one shot! The Melbourne succeeded in making this weapon. Captain Williams, still shocked at the loss of life, went on a personal vendetta into your time line to start the war. You know that. But what you don't know is this: he was going to use this weapon on the Romulans and take as many of them out as possible. And then, the war would be started. And the Romulans would be weak, and easy for the Federation to conquer. And that way, the Federation's loss of life-in his point of view-would be renewed. The war would be over, and the mighty Federation would have won. "But, the combined forces of the Romulan/Joran fleet was sorely overlooked by Captain Williams. Your Federation would have crumbled. And that is the story. But now, you're going to ask me why bother with your Captain Williams? We wanted to prevent your Captain Williams from doing the same thing to another time line, because in your time line, there is the same war going on. So, we are going to ambush his team at Joran, kill him and then the Melbourne will be taken out to a remote sector and destroyed. Just to prevent anyone on that ship from trying the same thing as he did. And now that I have told you, I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you." said Webster as he pulled open a drawer, revealing a hand phaser. He set it to kill and pointed it at Myers. Myers didn't budge, in fact, he became more bold. He lifted his chest more and said, "Before you kill me, let me do something." Myers took off his comm badge and rank pips and kept them in his hand. He flipped the switch on the back of the comm badge to vibrate instead of chirp and pushed it to activate it. Now, the Triumph was listening to everything he was about to say. Now, all he had to do was make sure they heard him. The custom way of opening a channel to a ship is saying the person's name, and then to the ship. He had to be very conspicuous about it, so as to not arouse Webster's attention. Here it goes. Thought Myers. "I, Captain Myers, the bold commander of the Triumph, wishes to say something." Hopefully, the channel was open now, "What has Starfleet become? What about the Prime Directive? Our most important rule. How can interfering with another time line, not be an act of defying it? Worrying about someone else's business. Changing fate. So you pick the easy way out. Kill an innocent, good man. Captain Williams does not deserve such dishonor. And now that you are going to kill me, I would just like to say one more thing." This was the part where he hoped that Commander Radtke, his first officer was listening. Radtke was very intelligent in the way of 'getting a drift.' He would be able to pick up anything that was paralleling the truth. "I would like to say, that once this golden energy beam overloads my nervous system and then burns me to my death, that I be whisked away by a great beam of light, and carried to my home in the sky." "Are you finished?" said Webster. "No, I would just like to add, you have very good coffee," and with that, Captain Webster fired the phaser, Captain Myers wishing, hoping that Radtke got the 'drift.' And just as the phaser blast was about to puncture Myers' belly, the beam of light carried him to his home in the sky. "Damnit!" said Webster. He punched his comm badge and said, "Webster to all stations, red alert, all hands, red alert, do not let the Triumph or the Melbourne out of spacedock!" and with that, he pointed the phaser at Myers' coffee mug and fired. The mug disintegrated to nothing but a small ring of dust on Webster's desk. "Good coffee, huh?" Chapter 13 CAPTAIN MYERS WAS released from the transporter beam and was greeted by Commander Radtke. "I got your message. What's this about Starfleet trying to kill you and Captain Williams?" said Radtke. "Its a long story, c'mon, I'll call over Lieutenant Marvin and I'll tell both of you. But let me warn you, you'll be shocked," said Myers. Just then, Myers' comm badge beeped. "Captain Myers, the spacedock has locked us and the Melbourne out! What shall we do?" sad a frantic officer on the bridge. "Hurry, break out of it, then slam into warp and get us the hell away from here, maximum warp!" said Myers. The Triumph and the Melbourne tried to push with all their might, but the spidery legs of the spacedock kept them in its web. All of a sudden, the Melbourne engaged it tractor beam. It was actually pushing the spacedock away from itself! The Triumph engaged in the same action, and succeeded. The two handsome ships tore through space and into warp, back out into the great unknown. The Melbourne and the Triumph dropped out of warp in a sector that was so close to being inside the Neutral Zone, that you could say that they were. Being in this sector, hopefully would not bring in Starfleet, for fear of a Romulan attack. This time, Lieutenant Marvin gave Captain Myers a break, and beamed over to the Triumph. He was escorted to the observation lounge and was seated. "Ah, Lieutenant Marvin, welcome to the Triumph." Greeted Captain Myers. "Thank you, Captain. Shall we begin?" he asked. "Of course. Would you care for a cup of coffee? I had my first cup of this at starbase, never had a better cup of coffee in my life." said Myers. "Please, I would enjoy some coffee." Said Marvin as he reached over and grabbed the streaming mug. He took a sip and said "Mmm," "Alright Lieutenant, we have a problem. As you know, Captain Williams and a team from the Melbourne is on their way to Joran for a first strike mission. What Captain Webster told me is appalling. He said that the were planning to kill everyone on the Melbourne's team, and then come after the ship itself and blow her up." Said Myers. "Why?" "Because in this time line, Captain Williams started this war, and he created that rift to come into our time to avenge all of the deaths that he caused. Starfleet is afraid that the Captain Williams from our time would do the same thing and plummet yet another time line into war with the Romulans. So, we have to save Captain Williams and his team before they are killed. But first of all, we have to find out where they went. Captain Webster said that they went to a planet to catch a freighter to Joran. We need to find out what planet and now. Hopefully, we can catch that freighter before it gets into Romulan/Joran territory." "You're right. I'll have my science officer go through al of the starcharts and pick the most likely planet that they would have gone to. Meanwhile, we need to make a first strike plan of our own." Said Marvin, really getting into the command position. "Why?" asked Myers. "Because, we still need to stop the war in this time line, and if we do, maybe the Federation here will let us go off easy from taking Captain Williams." Said Marvin as he swallowed another gulp of the rich coffee. "Excellent thinking Lieutenant, I'll have to commend you to Starfleet when we get back home." Said Myers. "Thank you Captain." Marvin looked around the room and finally came to the view port that showed him the stars. He stared at them and thought that his captain and his friends were out there, trying to save a Federation they barely knew but still loved, and would wind up dead. No, not dead, they would get them out of there before they killed them. They would. "So, the Melbourne will come in here, and then if there are any enemy ships in the area, the Triumph will engage them here." said Myers as he looked at the portable console on the table. For the past hour, Myers and Marvin had been planning their plan for rescuing Captain Williams. "Okay. But what if there are more Warbirds out there than we originally anticipated?" asked Marvin. "Well, you'll have thirty seconds to detect the team, drop your shields and beam them out of there. Hopefully, the Triumph could cover you for that long. Then, after the signal is given that you got them, we'll head out of Romulan/Joran territory, and head back to Federation space. Now, knowing this tine line's Federation, they will have their own little task force to get us at the border. What we need is a few tricks. I seriously think that they will open fire upon us." "Hmm, you're right, maybe we could launch some shuttles. Give them more than one target to shoot at. Or we could do this-," said Marvin as he was interrupted by the intercom. "Ensign Taylor to Captain Myers, sir, there is a message from the Melbourne, they say that they have found the planet." "Put it through here, Ensign." Said Myers. A few moments later, Mendak's face appeared on the screen. "Ah, Captain Myers, I have some good news. We have narrowed the planets down to four. The first is Fored IV, a planet that I native to the Roke' people. It is unlikely that they went there because it is out of the way of the Romulan Neutral Zone, but there is a lot of freighters that go through there. The second is Ashrik II. This planet is close to the Neutral Zone, but is in the wrong location for it to be close to Joran. The third is possibly the one that they went to: Tyrs III. This one is almost on a straight line to Joran. The fourth is another strong possibility. Dicon II. This one is a planet that was terraformed by the Federation in the beginning of the war, according to Captain Webster, is where they are going to return from. That doesn't necessarily mean that they came from that planet. Its up to you guys." "Well, I'm willing to try Dicon. What about you Mr. Marvin?" asked Myers. "Why Dicon?" asked Marvin, still in deep thought. "Because all the time I talked to Webster, it sounded like they were headed for that planet to get a ride to Joran. I may be wrong, but I'm willing to bet a whole sack full of that coffee that that's the place." Said Myers with that confident look on his face, that look that everyone could trust. "Alright, we'll go to Dicon II. Captain Myers, we will continue our discussion on this once I am back on board the Melbourne. I will contact you as soon as I'm in my office. And you're right, that is good coffee." When Lieutenant Marvin returned to the Melbourne, he walked onto the bridge and took the captain's chair. He wished he was at his post at the helm, but he had a duty to command this ship. "Helm, lay in a course to Dicon II, warp nine point five, engage." The Melbourne's warp drive hummed, accelerated up to warp nine point five, and then let go of her warp coils, and blasted into warp drive. Lieutenant Marvin walked into the observation lounge and touched the panel next to it to pen a channel to the Triumph. The screen blinked on, showing Captain Myers in his ready room, a mug of that coffee in his hand. "You know, you'll have to send me the molecular structure of that coffee so I can put it in the Melbourne's replicators." "I would be happy to. So, should we get down to business?" he asked. "Certainly. So, we already are on our way to Dicon II. Once we get there we will ask the merchants if they ever saw a Federation strike team walk through. Then, we follow their tracks all the way to Joran. Once we get there, we locate them, and beam them up, then get our butts across the Neutral Zone all before the Romulan ever see us. Doesn't sound to hard." Marvin thought about it in his head, and the more hr thought, the more it sounded futile. How were they, only two starships, supposed to penetrate Romulan territory, rescue their team, and get out all in one piece? Captain Myers' face looked the same way that Marvin felt. "Lieutenant, I would be lying to you if I said that there was a chance in hell that we would make it out of this. As you know, the Triumph is a match for one Warbird, not a fleet, and the Melbourne is pretty close as well, but there is no way we could fight off anymore than four or five Warbirds. I don't really know what the weapons capabilities of the Joran ships are, but I know that they have powerful weapons. So, when I say that we will give it a good fight, I mean it." said Myers getting a gruff attitude. "I've served this fleet for many years, fought in four wars, all of them, my ship never got destroyed, and I'll be damned if my fate is to end up in some other time line, far away from my home. So why don't we put out two heads together and see what we can come up with, eh?" Marvin looked at him as if he were the person that he had always wanted to meet when he was a kid. A kind man with an attitude that can change from nice to warrior in a flash. And right now, Marvin was seeing the in-between version. "Alright. Why don't we start with the phasers? If we take some of the EPS flow that goes to the replicator units, and transfer it to the phaser couplings, it should give the phasers a little bit more bang for their money. And if we programmed the photon torpedoes to do the Dispersal Pattern Sierra continuously, it would give us more photon torpedoes with less shots." Said Marvin as he consulted a PADD that had starship weapon specs on them. "Sounds good. But for what I'm thinking of, we're going to need an equal amount of shields as well. I was thinking that we could redirect power from the warp engines, and tie them into the shield generators. That way, the power would have to go through the shields first, and then through the warp core. That way, our shields would last a lot longer." He said as he took another swig of coffee. "Okay. I think we need to turn our attention onto tactics now. I'm thinking it will take the Romulan sensor nets approximately five minute to notify any surrounding ships. But, if there are ships in the area that are close enough to see us for themselves, then we have to push it harder. So, when we cross the Neutral Zone, I suggest that we push the warp engines to the maximum. Also, there is a way to throw the Romulans off. We could always send off magnetic waves from the main deflector dish to make a fake sensor reading, telling them that we are in a different region than where we really are." "Right. That'll buy us some more time. Once we get to Joran, they'll know that we're there. And there will be a lot of ships. So, while the Melbourne is trying to locate the team, the Triumph will swing around from behind the planet, and come in firing, catching them by surprise, but you're going to have to take a pounding until we get there. Once you drop your shields to use the transporter, we'll blind them by igniting some f our plasma, once the shields are back up, slam into warp. Don't wait for us. We'll get out of there alright." Said Myers. "You know, this sounds like it might just work. See you at Dicon Captain, Melbourne out." And with that, Lieutenant Marvin got up and walked to the door leading to the turbolift. He had to get down to engineering and tell Lovak the bad news. Captain Williams looked out the small view port at the stars. He saw them in a blur which indicated that they were still in warp. But, he didn't need to be to be the view port, because of the bad inertial damping would have lurched his stomach enough to tell him the same thing. For now, his stomach was rolling with the ship. And for now, it was holding. Ensign Keebler had to go to waste extraction to take care of same unpleasant business. He came back with a pale face and said a but tiredly, "I'm okay," Yeah right. Williams thought after he had said it. He had been talking to Captain Gleeson and Commander Coulon about just "stuff." Commander Classing had opened up her crate and had to stretch. She talked about how stuffy it was in there. "Why can't we stay out in the open air?" she had asked. "Because we may be stopped by a patrol vessel, and they might want to search the cargo." Said Gleeson like Classing was some stupid cadet, and not the stunning, smart lieutenant commander she was. "Look Captain Gleeson," she said in the same tone he had used, "You try getting your snob-nosed self in there. Oh, I forgot, your nose is too big, you wouldn't fit!" she said sarcastically. "Watch yourself Commander," warned Williams. He gave her a commanding look, and she got the hint right away. He looked at Captain Gleeson and saw that he was fuming. His hand reached down to his phaser and grabbed it. Classing backed off even more, getting behind a crate. She drew her own phaser. "Hang on! Stop It both of you!" cried Williams, "We're on the same side, damnit!" he said as he put himself between the two. "Out of my way Williams." Said Gleeson. Jessica ran behind a second row of crates. Gleeson fired a warning shot that grazed over her head. "Come here you bi-," began Gleeson. "I SAID STOP!!" yelled Williams as he gathered a fist and slammed Gleeson in the jaw a good one. He fell to the ground. In the process of hitting him, Williams grabbed his phaser and put it on the ground, drew his own, pushed the setting up to level 12, which would vaporize it, fired, and the phaser was no more. "Next time you try to assault one of my officers, you'll find yourself with more than a sore jaw. Think peanut butter." He put out his hand to Jessica as she stepped out from the crates and took his hand. Just then, another crate opened. It was three of Gleeson's team. By now, Gleeson was up on his feet. His three thugs stood behind him, waving their phasers in the air. "Let's kill 'em now!" said one. "Yeah! Let's kill 'em!" said another. The third just simply put his phaser back in its holster and stood there, obviously something was wrong with him. "What the hell is going on here?" asked Williams. "What do you mean kill us?" he said. "My officers are just a little anxious about getting to kill some worthless Joran scum!" said Gleeson as he wiped blood from his mouth. There was something definitely wrong with these people. And Williams knew that he had the answer. They were war-torn. That's all these kids knew, war, how to fight. All that Starfleet was is now torn down, and it is no longer an institution of peace, but an institution of war, just like their enemies. How pathetic. No, how scary. "Oh, I see. Well make sure that they don't attack one of my officers. And you know what I'll do to you." said Williams with a glare. Gleeson returned it with a glare of his own, not liking being glared at. "Right," he said with that look of a dangerous killer. Williams had to blink away form his eyes and back off. He resumed his booth and waited, waited in fear. Chapter 14 CAPTAIN WEBSTER SAT back in his chair, looking at the scaly figure of Captain Ukosk of the Pavo. He stared at his gills, and looked at his fishy moth. Ukosk came from the ocean world of Dolphia. Dolphia was one of the first worlds to help the production of weapons at the beginning of the war. "We have tracked the Melbourne and Triumph. They appear to be on their way to Dicon. Should I track them down?" he asked. "Yes, and take the Romeo and Gandhi with you, I want you to fight those ships, board them, take the crew as prisoners, and bring those ships back here. We could sure use two more strong ships. If they are difficult, destroy them. Webster out." On board the Pavo, Ukosk leaped up and walked onto the bridge. He took a seat and ordered the crew around and told the Romeo and Gandhi to be ready to leave. Time to go humaning. Thought Ukosk, using the familiar human term of 'fishing' in reverse. A few minutes later, the three ships sprang into warp at a factor of nine point six, their maximum, for Dicon II, and the unsuspecting Triumph and Melbourne. Captain Williams sighed. How long was this going to take? He didn't think that Joran was that far away from Dicon. Or it could be the velocity of the ship. At warp tree it could take them as much as two days to reach Joran. For now, Captain Gleeson and his thugs were staying to themselves. Williams and his crew were packed away in their crates playing cards or listening to each other talk. He was looking out at the stars wondering what that one kid meant when he said "Let's kill 'em." Why would Gleeson want him dead? Williams just hoped that he would be able to make it out alive from this mission alive and back where he belonged, on the Melbourne and in his own time line. He looked out at the stars. He could remember when he was a kid, he used to look up at the stars from his home on Earth, and wondering what his father was doing right then. Was he fighting the Cardassians? Or was he out on the fringes of Federation territory charting unexplored space. Then when he was done gazing, he would go inside the house and read about Captain Kirk's missions and the Enterprise and wished he could be up there with his father, or on his own ship. Then he would turn away from the reader, and open a channel to his dad's ship, the Carusoe and talk to him. That was the only way that he could make up for not seeing his father, over subspace radio. His dad would tell him how things were going, what they had been up to for the past couple of days, and ask how Earth was doing. He would always say "Beautiful," and leave it at that. He could also remember when the Carusoe came to Earth to be retro- fitted. His dad had beamed down right in there living room, and snatched him up and took him all the way up in space. He could remember how fun it was to be transported for the first time. The had materialized in an observation alcove, overlooking the Carusoe's berth. She was a gleaming starship, a Miranda class ship. Not very large, just the way his father liked it. A crew of only about three hundred. He got to walk onto the ship via an airlock, and was given a tour of everything. And from that moment on wanted to be in Starfleet. He had wanted to be on his dad's ship, but his father pleaded him not to. "You need to have your own experiences, son, and not have your father ordering you around. Think about it, what if we got in a battle and I was seriously injured, or even killed, and you were on it, how would you like that? No, you go and take that other assignment, I don't want you here." And if he had not listened to his father, he would have a made a vital mistake, he loved being by himself on the LaSalle. He wished he was there now, talking to his father. Even his mother who last he had heard was on a deep space assignment as an advisor on some outpost near the galactic core. And then there was his father, an admiral at Starbase 445. He even had his own ship which he takes out every once in a while. He missed them both. He wanted to be with them more than anything especially now. He was on some strange, alien ship with the worst redolence he had ever smelled. And a rolling stomach. He wanted to be home, he wanted out of here. He looked at the blurring stars and wished upon one of them. He had loved that ancient song that his mother used to sing to him when he was a small child. "When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are." he sung, and watched. Lieutenant Marvin was sitting in the command chair. This chair was so comfortable that he would like to take a nap. But being the commander of the ship needed his full attention. He looked down at the arm chair controls, and saw that they were about ten minutes away from Dicon II. He got up and walked out towards the observation lounge. He tapped his comm badge and told the person at Commander Classing's post to open a channel to the Triumph. A few moments later, the bridge of the Triumph appeared with Captain Myers sitting in his command chair. The bridge of the Triumph looked different than the pictures he had seen of the Enterprise's. Instead of a horseshoe tactical station, the Triumph had just a straight, gray console. In fact, the whole bridge was to the hue of some kind of gray. The command center, containing the captain's chair, the first officer's chair to the right, and the chair usually occupied by the ship's counselor. And then there were two small benches where guests could sit. The Triumph's bridge also had the helm and the Ops station in the same place as the Enterprise, but on this ship, instead of the console's support stand being on the left side of the console, it was on the right. And where the Enterprise had the computer banks on either bulkhead, the Triumph had extra science, engineering and communications stations. But it was all lit brightly, just like the Melbourne's bridge. "Lieutenant Marvin, what can I do for you?" asked Myers. "Captain, as you know, we are getting close to Dicon, and I was wondering how are we going to get the inhabitants to talk?" "Well Lieutenant, we could just ask them first. And then if they don't cooperate, we back up our question with a threat. So, do you want to do it? Or should I ask them?" said Myers with a raised eyebrow. "No, you go ahead and watch our tails, I'll ask them." Said an enthusiastic Marvin. "Very good Lieutenant. You are quite ambitious. You'll make a fine captain one of these days. Triumph out," Marvin liked that man. He was nice and a good man. And most of all, he knew his stuff. Don't get him wrong, he thought that Captain Williams was the best captain in the fleet. He looked down again at the ETA and saw they were down to four minutes. Almost time for show time. Chapter 15 Acting Captain's Log, Stardate 44793.2: The Melbourne and Triumph have arrived at Dicon II in an investigation as to the question of the location and ship that Captain Williams' team took to Joran. That is if they even came to this planet. But Captain Myers and myself are still confident in the fact that this is the planet, and that we have a "bingo." If this isn't the planet, then there is no way we could find Captain Williams in time to effectively save him. We would be way to late, and they may already be dead. The Melbourne and Triumph slowed to impulse power. They both slipped into a standard orbit around the rust-orange planet. "Open hailing frequencies to the governing building of the planet," ordered Marvin. "Aye sir," said Mendak. Marvin fond it a little amusing that a lieutenant commander said "Aye sir," to a lieutenant. "Channel open," he said. The alien face of a Tralian, a race that was a shade of navy blue in color, and had the biggest bugged eyes Marvin had ever seen. "I am Governor Torlak of the neutral planet of Dicon II. How can I help you?" he asked in a kind voice. Tralians were not known for being able to carry a conversation on long enough to get anything out of it. They usually turned hostile within the first few minutes. "I am Lieutenant Marvin of the Federation Starship Melbourne. I have come in search of a Starfleet team that came through here a couple of hours ago. If you know about them, I would be grateful if you told us the ship's destination and the ship's ID." Said Marvin, doing the best he could. "What do I get in return for this small favor?" asked Torlak. Oh yeah, I forgot. Tralians are known for trading things as well. Thought Marvin. "Well, we have some new replicator units straight from the Federation factory in our cargo bays that we were supposed to drop off at Ogden II. But, we could always go back and get some more." "How many and what kind?" asked Torlak. "Fifteen Mark VIII replicators." Said Marvin. "I have never heard of a Mark VII replicator before." said Torlak. "Well, they're a brand new design. Capable of handling 115 gigabits of molecular storage." Said Marvin with a smile. "That's quite impressive. You've got yourself a deal. Hang on a moment, I'll check with the travel department. Please hold." The screen changed from the Governor's stark office with the background of biospheres to commercials concerning residential property on the planet's surface. "Come on, come on! Why aren't we there yet!" yelled Captain Ukosk of the Pavo. "Sir, we are approaching the Dicon System, sir!" said the helm officer. Ukosk loved this militaristic style to his bridge. That's why he hated his fellow captain's systems. They only had to use one 'sir' and not have to stand and salute when a senior officer walked by. Ukosk liked control. And if anyone crossed him, he would charge them with mutiny and kill them. Then he would explain to Starfleet that an accident happened at their post and proved fatal enough that it killed the poor soul. Luckily, it hadn't happened more than once, so he didn't have to use that excuse that often. "Drop to impulse. All hands to battle stations!" he yelled through the ship's intercom. The Pavo's bridge screamed with busy people and alert klaxons. "Sir, yes sir!" said his tactical officer. "Tell the Gandhi and Romeo to prepare to fire upon the Triumph." Said Ukosk. "Sir, yes sir!" yelled his communications officer. "Now those traitors will pay for what they have done!" said Ukosk. "Captain Myers!" yelped Lieutenant Jones, the Triumph's tactical officer. "What is it Lieutenant?" asked Myers. "Sir, three fast approaching starships. The Gandhi, Romeo and Pavo. Their weapons are charged and shields are up. What shall I do?" he asked. "Red alert, tell the Melbourne to hurry up. We can't protect them from three ships. Ready phasers." He said as the bridge hummed to life, all panels and consoles turning their touch pads from the orange and purples to oranges and reds. "What is taking them so long?" said Myers, his hands clasped behind his back. "They might be stalling." Said Mendak. "Sir, I'm picking up three starships, armed and ready for combat. Its the task force that picked us up at the rift sir. Incoming transmission from the Triumph." He said. "On screen." said Marvin. The annoying commercials stopped, and Myers' face appeared on the screen. "Lieutenant, hurry it up, we have three hot ships out there, and we can't protect you forever." Said Myers. "Aye sir, I'll try. Melbourne out." The commercials returned to the screen, right when Torlak's face appeared. "We have found them. They left on a Dolarian ship." and he continued on. On board the Pavo "Open a channel to the Triumph." Said Ukosk. "Sssir! Channel open sir!" said communications. "This is Captain Ukosk of the Pavo you have thirty seconds to break orbit and head back to Starbase Altec, if you don't I will open fire." "Sssir! Message sent, sir!" said the communications officer. His back was so ramrod straight that it looked like his back would break under anymore stress. "Do I look like I'm stupid? Stand straighter!" the officer bent more, and everyone could hear his vertebrae crack. "That's better. Now stay that way!" "Sir, yes sir." Gasped the officer. On board the Triumph "Looks like we're going to have to fight our way out. Maybe not." He turned towards the helm and said to the ensign, "Listen carefully." Pavo "Time?!" cried Ukosk. "Ten more seconds sir!" said tactical. On the screen, Ukosk saw the Triumph turn about, putting her saucer toward them. The large ship towered above the considerably smaller Pavo. Triumph "Alright Mr. Tight Pants, here's our answer. Input the code," said Myers. "Aye sir, code being inputted." Said Radtke standing at the tactical console. Whenever the Triumph got in a battle, they liked to play little games with the crew of the other ship, and captain Ukosk looked like that kind of person that doesn't anything from anybody. Pavo On the bridge, the communications officer said, "Incoming transmission from the Triumph, sir!" "On screen!" cried Ukosk. The officer put it on screen. All of a sudden, the Pavo's bridge lighting was subdued a little more, and all of the screens everywhere on the bridge turned to a skeleton's head, and two bones making a cross behind it. The universal sign of poison, and from Earth, a pirate, was laughing. A little text bubble came from its mouth saying, "Have a nice day," over and over again. Then, the head zoomed in further and further until it was out of the screen, replaced by four red balls of light zooming towards the ship. "What the gok is that?" cursed Ukosk. "Photon torpedoes!" he cried. The picture of the Triumph resumed, firing a spread of torpedoes, hitting the unshielded Pavo. The Triumph had used the Pavo's command code to lower her shields and put in that little sign. The ship rocked from the photon torpedoes. Each one splitting into four more, Pattern Sierra. "FIRE!!!!" cried Ukosk. Melbourne "Why thank you Governor Torlak, you were most helpful. Melbourne out." The screen blinked off, showing a picture of the Triumph pounding on the Pavo. It then turned its attention onto the Romeo. But just as the first torpedoes hit the Romeo, the two remaining ships opened up phaser fire upon the Triumph. The mighty vessel's shields absorbed the energy without a scratch to them. The modified warp engine shields were working. "Send word to the Triumph, we may leave, then open fire upon the tow un-disabled ships, target their warp engines. Then, once we're out of the way, set course bearing 217 mark 73. Maximum warp." The Melbourne joined the party blasting her phasers onto the bad Starfleet ships. Their warp nacelles blipped and blinked, telling them that they weren't going anywhere. The two ships flew above the catastrophe and jumped into warp. Captain Ukosk got up from the floor of the bridge and surveyed the calamity. "Report!" he cried. "Sssir! Warp drive is off line, phasers and photon torpedoes off line, sir!" said his tactical officer. "Where is the Melbourne and the Triumph?" he said with rage. "Gone sir, they went into warp drive, they're on their way to Joran, sir!" said the tactical officer, even with the crisis at hand, he still had that militaristic aura to it. "Damn! Contact Captain Webster at Starbase Altec. Tell him to send more ships!" "Sssir! Yes sir!" Ukosk always got his man, but this time, he had his doubts. "Ha HA!!" cried Captain Myers. He was in his ready room accompanied by Commander Radtke. Lieutenant Marvin was in the Melbourne's observation lounge, listening to him on the view screen. "That sniveling little toad! We got 'em this time! You know, I think I know his problem, his problem is that he doesn't know how to fight anybody else but the Romulans and Joran. He can't fight anybody else, or at least not a person that is as witty as all of us! Ha HA!!" "Well, we now know that Captain Williams is on a freighter called the Freehoulia. Governor Torlak said that they walked onto the ship, and after a short while, it lifted off from the planet's surface. The planetary sensor net said that the Freehoulia was on a course of 217 mark 73, the exact same course we are on right now, a course for Joran." Offered Lieutenant Marvin. "Yes, but the question still remains," said Commander Radtke, putting his face into the screen's field of view, "Why are they going to Joran to kill him? Why not do it on a Federation world and say that it is Joran? That way, Captain Gleeson and his team would be in no danger." "Well perhaps Starfleet really does have an undercover mission to Joran, and they need Captain Williams to help them with it, and then after the mission is done, they'll kill him." Said Myers. "Perhaps." Said Radtke in a resigned tone. "We should be at Joran in a little under a half hour. We should cross the Neutral Zone in nine minutes." Said Marvin. "Good. From now on, I think we should get some rest. Good luck to you and the Melbourne, Lieutenant, we'll see you at Joran. Triumph out." The screen in the observation lounge went blank, and Marvin walked out onto the bridge and fell into the command chair. "Ha! Won again!" said Henley. This was their tenth game of poker. Keebler was tired of the game. Actually, he was tired of it from the beginning of the first game. He wasn't even very good at poker! "Well maybe that's because you know how to play," he said. "Oh c'mon! You were having fun and you know it!" she said. "When? Was it the time that I won one stinking chip? Oh yeah, I was having fun there alright." Said Keebler. He decided to drop the subject and bring up another one, one that had been on their minds ever since they stepped foot on this ship. "Do you think we'll make it out of here alive?" he asked. "Of course we will," said Henley as she cracked her neck. "Damned things, you'd think they would put us in a bigger crate." "You know, I've heard that you should never go on an away mission in a yellow shirt. Yellow shirts always get killed." "Nonsense. You're and engineer, only security officers get it. Don't worry about it. I have an idea that we'll get out of this a-okay. All you have to do is pray to God and he'll take care of you." she said. The way that she said it made Keebler feel a little better too. "Really?" he asked. "Really. I do it all the time. Whenever I'm scared or lonely, I pray, and I always feel better. So, if you're scared while we're on that planet, anytime just stop and talk to the one person who you know is looking out for you." she said as she pointed up as to the heavens. "Alright, I'll try it, whenever I get scared. Thanks, and you know, I feel better already!" said Keebler with a smile. Jessica had had enough of this being cooped up. She wanted out. She also had enough of listening to Ensign Pollock snore. She lifted the hatch and walked out. She quickly spotted Captain Gleeson. He gave her a snide look and rubbed his cheek where Captain Williams had hit him. She found Williams at a view port and walked up by him. "What are you doing?" she asked in a soft, sweet tone. "Just looking at the stars, how's the crates?" he asked. "Boring. You try being cooped up in their for who knows how long with Ensign Snore-Head Pollock. So how is Captain Khan and his not-so- superhumans?" she asked. "Not that bad, actually. They seem to be quite for the most part. Every once and a while one of them will say something about me like I can't hear it." "Well I walked past Captain Gleeson and he looked at me like I had just killed his pet snake. What gives?" "I don't know. Remember when one of his officers said, 'Let's kill 'em?' Well, I've been rolling that over in my head for a long time. Do they really want to kill us?" "No, I actually believe what Gleeson said. He said that they wee probably just ancy for the mission. I didn't give it a second thought. And you shouldn't either. By this time tomorrow, we will be back on the Melbourne and on our way home. Just keep thinking of that." She said. "Okay, I will." He said. Just then, one of Gleeson's boys walked up and said, "Excuse me, Captain Williams?" "Yes?" he asked looking at the boy. Williams thought he had a familiar face, and he recognized the young chap as the one who put down his phaser while the rest of the team that backed up Gleeson kept theirs at the ready. "Uh sir, I just wanted to let you know that I have the utmost respect for you. Even though my counterparts don't, and even my captain, I do. And well, I would like to do something. I-I w-would like to-," "Well, spit it out ensign," said Williams. "I would like to officially request asylum into your time line sir. All I have here is looking forward to retiring from Starfleet, which probably won't happen anyway. I'm made fun of here because I am a science officer. I shouldn't even be here. Captain Gleeson only made me security because I was good with a phaser. I don't like this war, and I really don't like my place in the universe. This universe at least. "But from what I here about yours, it sounds a lot better than this. Where you come from, there is no war, at least constantly, and Starfleet is what its really supposed to be. That's why I joined, and right now, all I do is practice my aiming capabilities on the phaser range." He said. And he said it with the biggest puppy dog eyes Williams had ever seen. And if there was one thing that Williams was a sucker for, it was puppy dog eyes. "What's your name, ensign?" he asked. "Ensign Gary Archer, sir," "Ensign," said Williams in that tone that made people think that you were about to say no, "Permission granted." With that his face lit up, and smiled the largest smile within a thousand light years. "We will have to check and see if there is a Gary Archer in our time line, as you can see, it would be difficult to work out the um, the paper work. And once that is settled, we'll have to talk with Captain Gleeson about asylum, and even if he says no, you coming with us. Then, once we're back home, you'll be able to pick for any posting you want in Starfleet." "I already know what ship I want to be on. Yours. I like you captain. I want to serve under you. I would be grateful is you accepted me." "Well ensign, what's your specialty besides shooting a phaser?" "I was assigned to the astrophysics department. But I can do anything you want me to. I don't really care." "We'll try our hardest to get you a posting that you like on the Melbourne. For now, I think you should go and sit down, Captain Gleeson may start to wonder where you are." "Okay. Thank you sir, thank you very much." He walked off. "Cute kid. I hope everything turns out alright so he can join us." Said Classing. "Me to." Said Williams. The two friends looked out the view port. Lieutenant Marvin looked out at the stars, wondering if Captain Williams was looking at the same stars. "Commander Mendak to Lieutenant Marvin," came his voice. "I'm here Commander," said Marvin. "We are the Romulan Neutral Zone," "Thank you Commander, Marvin out." He resumed his gazing. Captain Williams walked up to Captain Gleeson and said, "When are we going to be there?" "Shut up," said Gleeson. "Look you half wit, all this time you have been demeaning me and my crew. And you know what, I am sick of it. You should take a good long look in the mirror. Saying that you don't want to become your enemies. Well, do I have a picture for you. "Look's something like this. I see a Federation, great and big, and I see the Romulan Empire, wanting to be big. First they annex the Joran System, use them as pawns in the war, and then, they attack the Federation fully. And since you guys have been through hell already, you're going to endure it again. So, you beef up everything, make everything a warship, or a soldier. What happened to diplomacy, huh? What happened to that? Why do you continuously fight with no hope until your extinction? "Then, to get them back, you actually become them. Yes, that's right, you are your enemy. There is a third party here. And that third party is yourselves. You are fighting the Romulans, and yourselves. You are fighting the bullies, and an even bigger bully, yourself. The Federation is an institution no longer committed to peaceful cooperation with its neighbors, and you're not an institution established on exploration and science. You are a institution of war. And I tell you, I know longer want to be a part of it. So, I am going to march up to that bridge, and tell the captain to turn around, I will no longer take anything from you. I will no longer help you win your war. I quit. Take me back to my ship, and let me go home." Said Williams with impending rage. "And another thing. You, Captain Gleeson sir, are a small man. Hidden behind a history of death and war, where is the real Captain Gleeson? Huh? Where is he? You are hidden behind a cloak of hatred and horror. Come out, and help end this war. Please, help end this, now. I implore you." Gleeson's face was a mask of red. He was humiliated! He wasn't going to let this captain get the better of him. "Alright, just one thing," "What's that?" said Williams, returning to his professional stature. "Die!" said Gleeson as he whipped out his phaser and pumped it up to level eight, kill. He was about to push the trigger when a beefy fist from Williams hit the same cheek he had hit before. This time, it opened the wound even more. Blood oozed from his face, and he dropped the phaser. He yelped in pain and called his troops over. Just then, a phaser blast from behind Williams hit a crate and vaporized it, just as one of the troops jumped over. He spun around to see the shot had come from Classing. She put up a barrage and yelled to Bryan, "Get over here!" He got up and ran behind the crate she was behind. He took a glimpse at Gleeson's men and saw that they were reaching behind their backs for something. What came out was a phaser rifle. They started firing back, loud, nasty barrages. "We need to get to the bridge and commandeer the ship back to Federation territory. Get everybody out! The fist person to get there is to ask Captain Gorlia to turn her around, and break out the rifles!" "Aye sir!" she said as she fired another barrage as she got up and ran to the crate where the Melbourne's team was located. Just then, Commander Coulon raced up to Williams and asked what was going on. He must of have been dozing. Williams quickly told him and he grabbed the rifle that was thrown to him by Classing. Williams signaled to Coulon and Classing to join him behind three rows of crates, that should give them a good cover from the phaser fire from Gleeson's team. "Alright people," he said, "We need to get control of the bridge. I want to have two teams. Consisting of me, Commander Classing and Ensign Pollock." Just then, Ensign Archer slammed over a crate, knocking it down, spun around, fired and caught one of Gleeson's men right in the chest. He stopped in mid-air and fell over some crates, knocked out. "Count me in, Captain." Said Archer. "Alright, Henley, Keebler, Howard and Coulon you are a team. Archer, Classing, Pollock and myself will be the other. The first to get to the bridge then puts it through the ship, and then the other team goes and gets engineering. Understood? I wanted this to be peaceful more than anything, but it looks like we're going t have to fight. Please be sure and to keep your phasers on stun. Let's do it!" The two teams split up and both of them headed for the door that lead to the corridor. Williams set up a barrage to let his team go by unharmed, and then he heard Gleeson say, "They're trying to take the ship! Gleeson to Gorlia!" he said over the intercom, "Set up your men, Williams is trying to your ship!" "I read you Captain. My troops are set up, we'll get 'em!" Great. Another enemy. Now Williams was outnumbered by many times. There was no way his eight people could fight fifty plus. Oh well. It was time not to use brawn, but to use brains. He was outnumbered, outgunned, but not outsmarted. Time to play a little game. He saw that all of his team and part of Coulon's had made it out the door way. Phaser beams cut across his ears, slicing his delicate hearing into nothing but shrieks of phaser energy. All of a sudden, the lights dimmed, and the yellow phase fire burn lines into his eyes. "Ah hell, her goes nothing," he said. He pushed a few buttons on his rifle, and fired. A wave of energy formed a "v" in the air, stunning everyone. A wide beam. The last member of Coulon's team was out, so he and his first officer ran out as well, and locked the door behind them. Chapter 16 ON THE BIRGDE of the Freehoulia, Captain Gorlia called out to the helm officer, "Change course for the Bluckbar Nebula. We will hide there from the Federation vessels that are coming to get Williams and his team." He turned towards his science office on his right and said, "Cover our warp trail with a polaron field. That way they will not be able to track us." The both nodded as they went to their task. The Bluckbar Nebula was a dark matter nebula, and it was very dense, it would protect them from any kind of detection. That was one thing that Gorlia had to do, he reminded himself. He had to plead to his Romulan customers to give him a cloaking device, that way he could do a lot of things easier. Like it two enemy vessels were closing on him, he could just cloak and not run for a nebula. He'd look into it as soon as this fiasco was over. Or perhaps it wouldn't end for quite some time. Williams looked at Jessica. She was holding out a tricorder. "What deck are we on?" he asked. "I don't believe this!" she said. "What?" he cried. "This ship has twenty-five decks! How are we supposed to get up to the bridge all the up at the top? Without turbolifts?" "We'll get there, don't worry. First or all, we have to find a hatch that will open into a Jefferies Tube or the equivalent to it. Alright, Archer, cover us, Ensign Pollock, you scout ahead while Commander Classing and me look for a hatch somewhere around here. Be careful up there though!" "Yessir!" he said and ran ahead. Williams looked frantically around for a hatch, as did Classing. It was about time to get out of here, Gorlia's men should be hunting them down any minute now. It was so dark! He opened up his tricorder, which would emit some light. The green and red flashes of the device lit up the wall just a little. He searched and searched when it struck him. How stupid! The tricorder! He made the tricorder scan the ship, or at least this deck, for a detailed map. That way, he would know where everything was and where a hatch might be. Ensign Pollock came up to a passage of the corridor where it was lit. A dim, white light cast eerie shadows all over the hallway. He heard shouts of the troops down the corridor and quickly hid in a section that was not lit, and checked his phaser. The troop's footsteps grew louder, until the were right in front of him. He was well protected from the light, so they skipped right over him. They walked towards the light and stopped for a rest. Dolarians may be good at being strong, but they were not very well educated to stay fit. Even walking at a leisurely pace made them tired. They coughed ad choked and sat down, some putting all four arms on their knees to catch their breath. Pollock thought that now was his chance, he leaped out of the darkness and into the light and ran down the hard metal corridor that the troops had just come from. He heard them right behind him, wheezing terribly, but keeping up for the most part. He lied on more speed, pumping his legs to the absolute limit. The Dolarians kept up still, but slowing down with each impending second. Speaking of slowing down, he was feeling a bit winded himself. His legs were beginning to feel like rubber. He slowed down and stopped in pure darkness. The darkness did not shield him this time from the troops this time. They could track him by just listening to his breath. Where was that Academy training now, huh? He walked slowly up the corridor, now not concerned with his original mission to find a hatch, but to get away from his attackers. He could smell their wretched body odor, and their wheezing. He walked faster and faster, until he was at a jog. Boy! These Dolarians were fit! They started jogging with him too. His side ached and he felt that the end was near. Time to stop running and put up a little phaser defense. He whipped out the hand phaser, having shed the rifle to lessen the weight for his run, and fired a few bursts. It was returned with four purple blasts of Dolarian disruptors. The blasts were absorbed into the wall of the ship. Pollock returned with some more shots when he smelled something behind him.the stench of a Dolarian. He felt a large, actually four large hands grab him and pin him down. He was caught. And he was dead. "Captain," said Commander Classing, "Do you think I should go check on Pollock?" "Yeah, you might want to, he hasn't reported back in a while. Be careful up there, in fact, take Mr. Archer with you. Report back to me in ten minutes. I'll keep looking." "Aye sir," she said. She and Archer scurried down the corridor, and into the blackness. Williams heard something behind him and turned, seeing that it was one of Gleeson's men. They must've resumed consciousness. The trooper brought out his rifle and pointed it at Williams. Williams ran to a small alcove or a niche in the corridor. Phaser fire rippled across the darkness. All he saw were green and blue floating lines going across his vision. He got out of the niche, grabbed the rifle by both hands and fired three shots. He was scared. It was dark, people were shooting at him, and his teammates were off somewhere looking for someone. Williams could hear the trooper getting closer, so he ran down the corridor, his boots making loud clanks on the metal floor. Phaser shots passed right by his ear, some landed at his feet. He cam to a crossing in the corridor where there was some light. His tall form cast and eerie shadow that stretched over all four walls. He kept running, until he found a hatch. Bingo! He opened the hatch, got his hand phaser, set it to overload and threw it into the middle of the corridor. The distinguishing sound of a whining overloading phaser squealed through the corridor. The trooper stopped at the hatch that Williams was frantically crawling in, and fired a few shots, right when the phaser blew up. The trooper was hurled against the wall, neck broken, and flames licked at Williams' boots from the explosion. The concussion from the blast knocked him down for a while, but he shrugged it off and hurried on. Classing followed Archer down the corridor. It was pitch black, they couldn't see a thing. Archer trudged on, phaser rifle in hand, when all of a sudden a stench worse than a thousand garbage scows filled his nostrils. Then he bumped into something. Something big. He backed up a bit, but the thing turned around, and four arms wrapped around his neck, squeezing him, choking him. Classing saw this, and she ran up, picked up her phaser when one of the arms came off of his neck and hit the phaser away. The hand then smacked her across the corridor with a side splitting headache. She quickly then figured out that the stench was that of a Dolarian. She rubbed her head and looked around, hearing two different screams. The one of Ensign Archer, and the other one of Ensign Pollock. Good. He was still alive. She got up, smelled her way to the Dolarian holding Archer, got down on her back and slid under Archer's legs. She then said, "Hey stinky, stop choking him, IT ISN'T NICE!!" she said as she kicked the Dolarian right where it counts. "Nut butter," she said as the Dolarian dropped a coughing and wheezing Archer, she checked him out and saw that he would live. She then went to get her phaser. She picked it up, and aimed at where she thought the other Dolarian was that had Pollock. She fired one burst and heard a big thump! She walked up to the place where she fired and heard a mild, "Thanks," it was Ensign Pollock, still alive, and breathing. Ensign, remind me next we go on a mission to bring a flash light, and a gas mask." She heard him chuckle a bit, and then she helped him to his feet. "C'mon, we have to find where Captain Williams is." Commander Coulon was crawling down a Jefferies Tube wit the rest of his team. It was pitch black, and the only thing that he could see was the light that his tricorder produced. They had been crawling around in these things for about fifteen minutes. They were getting tired of scrambling around these miserable tubes. They smelled worse than the whole ship. But, they had climbed a few decks, so they were at least on deck 23 by now. All of a sudden, his tricorder went dead. He hit it in hesitation, but to no avail. Then the rest of the teams tricorders went out. "Great. Now what are we supposed to do?" asked Howard. "Use your eyes," said Coulon as they crawled on. Right when they got to a bend, Coulon thought that he heard something. Probably just a gurgle from the ship's waste water system. He out his hand on one of the ladder rungs and started his ascent up. When he reached the op of the ladder, and deck 22, he took a moment to stretch. There it was again, that weird noise. He spun around, and lost consciousness. It was a Dolarian. Lieutenant Henley whipped out her phaser and aimed at the fat soldier. The Dolarian was quick though and kicked her with one strong hoof all the way down the ladder, flip flopping among each rung. She fell to the bottom of the deck, Ensign Howard right behind her, getting out her med kit. "Lieutenant? Are you alright?" she asked. Henley didn't move. Howard jumped the rest of the way, brushed her blond hair out of her face and opened up her tricorder. Well, at least it was working now. It read that she had three shattered vertebrae. She got out the a laser welder and tried flipping Henley over, but that was impossible without a transporter. "Is she okay?" asked Keebler from up above. "I don't know, I can't do much from here, I need to get her to a medical facility. She has three shattered vertebrae and I can't fix them without breaking more, if I break to many, she'll die. Her spinal column is under too much stress as it is." "Well Commander Coulon is knocked out. And I don't know where his attacker wen-," Howard heard a horrible scream and some kind of chopping noises. It was Keebler. He was screaming. She had to get up there. She started climbing the ladder when a piece of cloth fell on her shoulder. She picked it up and saw that there was a rank pip on it. A pip that was an ensign's. Keebler's. Was he dead? Oh God! That monster was going to come after her now! She put that thought aside for a moment. She got out her tricorder and flipped it open. She checked the database for Dolarian physiology. She looked up irritants. The tiny display screen showed many irritants to a Dolarian. Almost all of them was something that she didn't have. Except for this! All she had to was get some ammonium and spray it into the atmosphere! Dolarians had a stronger weakness to it than humans. Yes, it would be toxic, but she could probably whip up a batch of anti-irritant. She quickly got out a hypo and a small flask that had some ammonium in it. She could hear the beast coming! She put the bottom of the hypo into the flask and made it suck some ammonium up. The hypo beeped telling her it was full and she sprayed it up where Keebler was, down by where Henley was and up by where Coulon was. And then, smelling the ammonia, the Dolarian quickened his pace down the ladder. Wait a minute! Quickened! That wasn't supposed to be happening! She jumped to the ladder on the other side of the tube and said, "Hey you!" the Dolarian spun around and met a white mist of ammonia right in his eyes. He squealed and jumped. He climbed the ladder and out of the tube. "Whew!" she said. She climbed the ladder some more up to where Keebler was. She got up there and flipped open her tricorder. It didn't work. There must be some kind of damping field on this deck. She thought. She would have to check him out without twenty fourth century technology. She checked his pulse. Barely going. She then got out a hypo that was supposed to quicken your heart rate. She pumped the stuff into him. She checked his pulse again and found that his pulse was up. That was good. She then looked at his neck. At the spot where the torn uniform piece had come off, she saw an oozing wound. She got out some gauze and wiped up the blood. She then got out a flesh welder and ran it up and down the cut. Within a coupe of seconds, his cut was nothing. Now she just had to wait for him to wake up. Time to check on Commander Coulon. His case wasn't so bad. All he had was a slight concussion and a sprained ankle. She quickly corrected the problem. She then had to get busy on making something to counteract the ammonia before they all died of asphyxiation. Commander Classing and her team walked along the corridor and found a large blast point. "Looks like a phaser overload." She said. Ensign Pollock was reading his tricorder. This can't be! This can't be! He thought. He checked his tricorder again. Yep, it can be. "Uh, Commander. I have some bad news. My tricorder picked up some remnants of a person here and it shows the DNA patterns to be human." "Which means that it might be Captain Williams." She said. "It could be one of Gleeson's men," added Archer. "It could be. But let's tread on just in case this tube gets us to the bridge." They all followed her into the tube, and crawled on. Captain Williams had climbed seven decks. By his tricorder readings, he was on deck 18. And all this time he had not met any Dolarians or Gleeson. So, he kept climbing in the darkness. It was about time for him to take a break when he came to another hatch that said deck 17. Now knowing that the Dolarians were a confident people, and that they would have suspected to have the rebellious crew of Captain Williams under control and kept to the lower decks, the decks-like deck 17- should not have its turbolifts turned off. He was going to risk it. He kicked open the hatch to be overwhelmed with a wind of cold air. He was in a refrigeration bay. He stepped through, covering his eyes from the bright light. He was so accustomed to the darkness now that it was like looking directly into the sun. It passed and found that all the lights were on! He was right! They hadn't cut power to this deck! He quickly ran to the door, and found that it was locked. "Damn!" he said. "Just my luck!" he said. "What luck?" said a familiar voice. All the lights were then turned out, except for one that shown directly on Williams, not permitting him to see beyond the light. "Who are you?" he asked. "Why you should know me Captain. I'm the man who tried to kill you, and is going to kill you. So why don't you be a good boy and die?" asked Gleeson. The lights came back on, and showed Gleeson and the trooper that said, 'Let's kill him.' "Alright, I surrender. Kill me now. I guess I have asked for this." Said Williams, who was still close to a door way, a door way with a control panel. He quickly studied it and found out that the orange button was the button that activated the refrigerators. The red unlocked the door. And the green was the button that Bryan had wanted. A button that would cause a distraction. He pushed it, and there was a rumbling sound. Now the door out of the cargo bay was set under an overhang that had some strange looking doors on the front of it. Well, now that Williams had pushed the button, the doors started to open. The rumbling noise stopped. And then they heard the sound of rushing water. The green button must be the cleaning system. Gleeson and his men were drenched in water. Williams hit the button to unlock the door and ran out. He was in a lighted corridor, and no Dolarians in sight. He ran down the corridor and stopped. Wait a minute, how am I supposed to take a bridge with one person? He thought. And with that, he thought he would wait for Commander Classing to catch up to him. He looked around and found a door that was open. He walked inside and found that it was a some kind of inventory room. He stood up against the wall and decided to wait there for Classing. Hopefully, no one would walk in and find him. But of course, he did have a phaser.Just then, he heard some footsteps, coming in his direction. Chapter 17 COULON WAS THE first to regain consciousness. He looked around the dark tube and remembered where he was. "Ensign Keebler? Ensign Howard? Lieutenant Henley?" he called out to them. "I'm here sir, Ensign Howard. Ensign Keebler has a concussion just like you, and Lieutenant Henley has three shattered vertebrae. Don't try to move. Here, let me give you a pain killer, you must have an awful headache." "Yeah, I do," he said. She put a hypo to his neck. "Oh, that's better," he said as he stood up. He looked around and saw a hatch. "Now where could that lead to?" he asked as he started to open it. The Melbourne and the Triumph were still gliding by at warp speed, deep inside Romulan territory, and they had been unchallenged since then. Lieutenant Marvin thought that that was very peculiar. "Mr. Mendak," he said, "Are you picking up anything on sensors?" "No sir. Not a thing. The only thing within the sensor range is the Bluckbar Nebula. And," his console started to beep at him. "Sir, the Freehoulia's warp signature has just faded. We are no longer tracking them, I don't understand-," he said as his board beeped frantically at him, "Sir! I'm picking up seven tachyon surges, ships are de-cloaking. Four Romulan Warbirds, and three Joran Battlecruisers. Their weapons are charged-," he was again cut off by his board that was beeping loudly, "Sir! I'm picking up five new warp signatures from astern! They are Federation starships! All of them with their weapons charged!" "Red Alert!" said Marvin. The bridge's lights dimmed, and Marvin had a distinct feeling that this was it, this was where he was going to die. On board the Triumph, Captain Myers looked at the fleet of enemy ships in a ghastly face. "Red Alert, all power to weapons," he said as the alert klaxons sounded, and everybody became a whole lot more busy. "Open a channel to the Melbourne," "On screen Captain," "Lieutenant, what's your assessment of this little situation?" he asked. "I think we should make a run for it. We could divert our course to the Bluckbar Nebula, it would be a lot harder for the to track us." "Good idea, that way we could lose them in the nebula and then head for Joran from the far side, that way not letting them know that we escaped." "Alright, we'll divert course, but we're going to have to be fast," said Marvin. "Good luck to you Lieutenant, Triumph out. Helm, set course for the Bluckbar Nebula, maximum warp, but first, fire three photon torpedoes to the lead Romulan, Joran and Starfleet ships. I just want to make them mad," "Aye sir, torpedoes targeted, torpedoes away," the three red torpedoes glimmered toward their targets and then split into four each, hitting each ship with acute, if not deadly, accuracy, just as the Melbourne and Triumph zoomed into warp drive. When the two ships reached the Bluckbar Nebula, followed by the fleet of enemy ships, they were welcomed by an armada of disruptor bolts, photon torpedoes and phaser discharges. So far, the Starfleet and Romulan fleets had not picked a fight yet, and everything was fine, they were going after the two ships that had assaulted them both. The Melbourne entered first, her shields being dropped because shields do not work inside a nebula, at least this one, and the Triumph did the same. The fleet followed them in, intent on destroying them both. And just as they entered the nebula's section of dense dust, they lost about 65% of all sensor functions. But low and behold, there was a ship already in there, a ship that was prepared to fire on any ship that crossed its path, and that ship was the Freehoulia. Commander Coulon and Keebler walked into the Freehoulia's engine room, from the hatch. At first, the three men in it didn't notice them, then, they saw them and got out their phasers, but Coulon was faster, and the three Dolarians crumpled to the floor. He ran over to a console and said, "This is why our tricorders didn't work, the reactor core of the engine overwhelmed them. This looks like a navigation screen," he checked it and saw that the ship was in some kind of nebula. "What junk," said Keebler, as he looked around the freighter's engine room. "I'm sure glad that I'm not responsible to keep this stuff operating. I would never get any sleep!" "I think I can take control of the ship from here, all I'd have to do is knock out the life support on the bridge, and then command of the ship would be routed to engineering. But where is the life support panel?" he looked around, and walked up to a console that showed sensor schematics of the nebula. And what he saw was appalling. He saw fourteen ships headed toward them. He isolated one of them and saw that it was Romulan. He then isolated another one and saw that it was a Federation starship. Wait a minute! A Federation starship? It was, no! It couldn't be! It was the Melbourne! And the ship right next to it was none other than the Triumph. They were saved! Hoping that the communications damping field that Gorlia had set up at the beginning of this crusade was off-line, he tapped his communicator. And, luckily it beeped. "Commander Coulon to Captain Williams," he said. Could it be? Could that actually be his first officer trying to contact him? The footsteps were getting closer! What to do, what to do?! He peeked out the doorway to see if the person was coming towards him or not, and indeed it was, coming straight for the room he was in. He would wait. He said in a low, soft voice, "Standby Commander," and then, he doubled up his fists, and knocked the Dolarian right in the face. The large creature fell over and walked right into unconsciousness. "What can I do for you Commander?" he asked. "Sir, we have taken over engineering, and we have found the Melbourne and Triumph! All we have to do is contact them and tell them to beam us up! Tell Commander Classing that she doesn't have to worry anymore. She can have a bath in no time!" "That's great news, but Commander Classing isn't with me. She's somewhere else on the ship," Classing climbed the ladder, when a drop of water fell on her face, and then a bigger drop, and then water drenched her and the two others. She spit the water out of her mouth and climbed some more, soaking wet. They reached an open hatch, and saw frozen water and Captain Gleeson and his cronies all huddled in a corner, struggling to get some heat out of themselves. She climbed out of the hatch the rest of the way and walked on the slippery ice. She smiled at Gleeson and mouthed, "Sucker," she then walked out the rest of the way and gripped her hand phaser. She emerged onto the corridor and walked down it, hearing someone talking. She turned her ear closer to the sound. "Yes Commander that's right, I'm trapped up here," "Captain Williams!" she said as she turned the door, then stopped wanting to play a little joke on Williams. She put her phaser right up to his temple and then said in a low, gruff voice like a Dolarian. "Drop it!" and she emerged the rest of the way. She hugged Williams like she hadn't seen him in years. "Don't you ever leave me alone again!" she cried. "Shh! Commander Coulon has engineering. Yes Commander, that was Miss Classing. We're all here, now all you have to do is get a transporter lock on us and beam us to engineering." "That might be harder that you think, Captain," "Why?" "Well, we have no way of telling what console the transporter is on. These are like bilingual consoles, they have all their information in Federation English, but the titles to identify them are all in Dolarian. I'll try though, hold your position," Coulon looked around again and saw nothing that looked like a transporter control station. "Found it," said Keebler. "How?" "I'm an engineer, remember? These consoles were scrapped from a Federation starship, all I had to was convert the language into English. Federation parts are compatible with Federation equipment," he said, pointing to his engineering kit. "Good, beam them here," said Coulon, "Then once they are here, beam Ensign Howard and Henley up here as well," "Very good sir, locking on, energizing," four columns of orange light took place, and then released Captain Williams, Classing, Archer and Pollock. He then locked onto Howard and Henley, as a person lying on her back materialized, with Howard bent beside her. The Melbourne's team was now complete again. "Alright people, we need a plan. I suggest we take over the subspace radio and contact the Melbourne. What do you think?" "Sounds good to me," said Coulon. "Get on it Keebler," "Yes sir," the ensign bent down and began his work with the consoles. About ten minutes later he said, "I think I got it," the console warmed up. "Okay, subspace radio at your command, Captain," "Good, open a channel to the Melbourne," "Channel open," said Keebler. Instead of Lieutenant Marvin's face on the screen, they heard a loud humming noise that was coming from the ship. And then they heard the discharge of a phaser bank. "Oops!" said Keebler. The purple phaser beam hit the Melbourne straight on, crippling her saucer section. Knocking out power supply in some areas. "Where did that come from?" yelled Marvin over the calamity. "It came from a ship. A ship that matches the identification of the Freehoulia!" said Mendak. "Open a channel to the Freehoulia," said Marvin. And what he saw was the surprised face of Captain Gorlia. "Keebler, what happened?" asked Williams. "I crossed the red wire with the green junction nod sir, I should have it fixed within no time, there!" and then, all of the sudden a photon torpedo was launched. "Keebler!" said Classing, "There is a difference between subspace radio and photon torpedo!" said Classing, stressing each syllable. "Sorry! That should do it!" he said, and then, on the tiny screen, the oh so pretty face of Lieutenant Marvin appeared on the screen. "Lieutenant Marvin, do I have a story for you!" said Williams. "Captain Williams! Where are you?" asked Marvin. "Deck 22, check next to the main reactor, and you'll see that there are eight humans that need to be beamed up, but beam Lieutenant Henley directly to sickbay, she was wounded." "Eight people Captain?" asked Williams. "Yeah, eight," said Bryan as he patted Archer on the shoulder. "Hang on, we'll have you aboard in no time!" This was it. They were going home. Now they could they out of this place, and not look back. The photon torpedo that the Freehoulia shot, hit a Romulan Warbird. With no critical damage to the ship, only to the Romulans ego, the commander of that ship ordered all wings to fire on the Federation ships, for they had started a fight with them. And the battle had begun. Thirty seconds later, Captain Williams and his seven team members were greeted by Lieutenant Marvin in the Melbourne's transporter room. "Welcome aboard Captain," he said. "Thank you Lieutenant, I see you didn't bang u my ship too much." "No sir, I took care of her just like you do. And I think I like this captain business, I think I'll apply to become a night bridge commander. What do you think?" "I think you'll do fine. C'mon lets get to the bridge." Said Williams, eager to sit in his chair again. "Uh sir, what about granting asylum to me?" asked Archer. Williams took his finger and ran it across his throat saying, "Nick it, after what Gleeson is going to go through, I doubt he'll be worrying about one officer. You just get down to wherever your GQ station was on the Gandhi, then when we have some time, we'll work out the postings." "Thank you sir," as he hurried down the corridor. Williams walked onto the turbolift accompanied by Marvin, Coulon, Classing, and Pollock. Just then, the ship was rocked by a phaser blast. When they reached the bridge, they found thing just as they should have been. Williams walked up to his command chair and sat down, feeling like he was sitting on feathers. "Open a channel to the Triumph," he said as Marvin sat down at the helm and started to maneuver the ship out of the nebula. Classing fired a few phaser shots at a Warbird, just to tick it off. "Captain Myers, I think it is high time we get our butts to the rift, what do you think?" "Good to see you Captain, I agree, let's get out of here," "See you in our own timeline. Melbourne out. Mr. Marvin, set course for the rift as soon as we clear the nebula and punch it up to warp nine." "Yessir!" said Marvin as he ducked the Melbourne under two ships slugging it out with each other. The Melbourne and the Triumph were going home, and they were going to stop a war. "Oh yeah! I forgot! With all this commotion going on with this time line, I forgot about ours! How are we going to stop the Romulans?" asked Williams. "Well, I was thinking, we could use the plan that Captain Webster had us do. Or going to do, whatever," said Classing. "No, I don't want to go down on Joran and have a strike team blow out the brainwashing emitter. I think it would be just as easy to knock it out from space. Mendak?" asked Williams as he turned to his science officer. They were all gathered in the Melbourne's observation lounge. "Well, to stop e-band communications, we should be able to knock it out with a tunneling neutron beam. Knock it out in one blast. We could modify the phaser banks to emit neutrons, but we would need a lot more neutrons than the Melbourne can squeeze out." Said Mendak, running the equations over in his head. "The Triumph, we could use her phasers as well," said Marvin. "Good thinking you two, contact the Triumph and tell her of our intentions, for now, I am going to my ready room to relax, dismissed," said Williams. "Hang on Captain, I have something that Captain Myers sent over from the Triumph. You have to try it." said Lieutenant Marvin. "Okay. What is it?" he asked. "You like coffee sir?" Captain's Log, Stardate 44793.7 We are thirty minutes away from home. The rift is still open and ready to admit us in. The modifications to the phaser banks are going as planned. We have been traveling through Romulan territory unchallenged. We are still at warp nine and all is smooth sailing. And Lieutenant Marvin has given me a taste of the best coffee I have ever tasted. And as for Ensign Archer, it should be so recognized in this officer's log that Ensign Gary Eugene Archer has become an official crew member of the starship Melbourne on Stardate 44793.7 assigned to the astrophysics lab. When the two tired ships reached the rift, they were met by the ominous green glow. All they had to do was fly through. "Lieutenant Marvin, one quarter impulse power, take us in," and with that, the Melbourne and the Triumph entered the rift, and into their on time line. Captain Williams saw the green rift on the screen grow larger and larger, and then., nothing but white. Commander D'Rem of the Imperial Warbird Klidon looked over his science officer's shoulder and said, "Take us within three hundred kilometers." The graceful Warbird closed in on the rift. The rest of the fleet moved with it. "Sir, I'm picking up two objects coming through the anomaly." "On screen," the screen flickered to show an Excelsior class ship and a Galaxy ship pop out from the rift. "Sound battle alert," the ship started to rumble and shake. "What's happening?" "We are being pulled in," said his science officer. The gravimetric wakes from the Melbourne and Triumph pulled the Klidon in, and then, two of the Romulan ships grabbed onto the Klidon with their tractor beam, and were sucked in. Then the gravimetric blasts caught up with the rest of the fleet, sucking them in too. The whole Romulan/Joran attack fleet was pulled into the other time line, they were going to war. "I'll be damned," said Williams. "Look at them. Well, they are going to get their war. Lieutenant Marvin, take us to Joran and put us in orbit." "Aye sir," A few minutes passed and the Melbourne and Triumph were in orbit, firing their neutron beam. "That should do it Captain, within about six months, the Joran should find out what the Romulans were doing to them, and the Romulans would have lost again." Said Mendak. "Good work all of you. You know, I think we should turn out to be a fine crew. Well, I think we should be on our way. Mr. Marvin, set course for Ogden II, warp four, and Miss Classing, open a channel to the Triumph," "Aye sir, channel open," "Captain Myers. Thank you for everything. Without the Triumph we would still be stuck back there in the other time line. We owe you one." "On the contrary Captain, the Melbourne had a big part in saving our butts too. Thank you, and I hope we'll meet again. See you out there. Triumph out." and with that, Captain Myers' face disappeared from the screen, showing the brown surface of Joran, and the graceful turning of the Triumph, and then she pulled away and went into warp. "Mr. Marvin, engage," the Melbourne swung out of orbit, and gracefully accelerated into warp drive. Captain Williams was sitting in his ready room, wondering if all of what that other Starfleet did was worth it. Just then, his door chimed and he admitted the person on the other side in. "I see you're a little lonely," said Jessica Classing. "I was just wondering if what they did was worth it all. I mean, they got themselves into a bigger mess by trying to get us in the nebula, and then when the D'Rem's fleet went through, its like we signed that Starfleet's death sentence." "Well, don't think about it. They brought it upon themselves, they used us, in the most horrible way. And for that, they should pay for it." "I hope you're right." he looked at her with flaming eyes and said, "Don't say it," "Say what?" she said. "'I'm always right,' isn't that what you always say?" "You got me there, c'mon, let's g get a drink in Seven Forward, and we can talk." "I think I'd like that," said Williams. The walked out and left their worried behind. The Melbourne glided through space, just waiting for all the other adventures and mysteries out there. And wondering when they were going to come. THE END 64 82