Gamma Mission

[Lt. Staplic]

Seth walked out of the turbolift headed for the security coorodore. He'd schedualed a briefing with the security staff to cover all the basic security protocalls for the mission before they ran into any trouble. He'd heard about the trouble on the Paladin and was set to make sure something like that didn't happen on his ship.

He approached the door to the security coorodore and saw it close behind the last few stragglers. Seth walked up to the door and took a small breath, then tried to manipulate his facial expression into as pleaseant a pose as he could think of, then walked in. Instantly Seth could feel the tension in the room swell. Everyone stopped their conversations and looked toward him, though no one made direct eye contact. Seth walked up to the front of the room to begin his briefing.

"I am Lieutenant Cix head of secuity aboard this ship for all who don't already know me. These are my deputies Ensign T'loore, and Ensign Marxe." He said motioning to the two ensignes standing at toward the rear of the room. "I would like everyone here to refamiliarize themselves with the security protocalls for this mission. As many of you may have heard, an Ensign was murdered on the Paladin. I don't want anything like that occuring here. I would also like everyone to be on the look out for any suspicios behavior as the murderer remains at large. Any suspicious activity is to be reported to either deputy or to me directly. Understood?"

"Understood." Was the uniform reply.

"Good. Dismissed." Cix said finishing his schpeel.

The room slowly began to empty, as person after person quicly walked past the security chief and into the hall way without even a glance.

[Mikey]

"So, life as a foreign exchange student is treating you alright?" Mikey asked.

"So far... although I expect a few of my crewmates would like it better if I actually cared about their jibes," Grr'lek answered casually.

"That's one reason I recommended you. What about the captain?"

"Commander D'tyra? Easy enough to work for, but a little tough to read... she's definitely not a textbook Romulan." Grr'lek glanced around Mikey's ready room, decorated incongruously with the Andorian's martial trophies on one wall and his quasi-sister's artwork on another, then leaned forward and lowered his voice. "How are you doing?"

"It's a good crew. My security chief is untested, and the CMO is a real piece of work, but Hewer and Ge'haan are great and Nijhoff has been a huge assett."

Grr'lek scowled. "I meant... about your father..."

Mikey laughed humorlessly. "I know what you meant. We finally had a chance to connect and now..." Mikey's gaze grew distant, and then took on a strange intense gleam as he continued, "Well, nothing for it now but to keep moving forward."

"Speaking of moving, Romulans are on par with Commander Rochey about punctuality. I'd better get back. Thanks for the runabout," Grr'lek said, standing.

"Anytime," Mikey answered, also rising and shaking Grr'lek's hand. As they left the ready room, the Caitian headed for the turbolift with a wave to the staff while Mikey addressed the bridge. "Ge'haan, Moncano - please set up a schedule for patrolling the system... runabouts with fighter escorts. Jon - approve it and post it to Commander Rochey."

"Actually, sir," Ge'haan mentioned, "the crystal commander is hailing."

"That's 'Commander Rochey,' lieutenant commander," Mikey chided Darel, but grinned in spite of himself. "On screen. Good to see you, commander," he continued as the Tholian's image appeared.

"Of course," Rochey answered. "It still seems odd to see you in a red shirt and with four pips on your collar. I could have expected it, though - you always seemed to be the most Tholian-like Starfleet officer I've met."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Mikey said with a wry expression. "What's the status of the fleet?"

"The Romulans are beginning exploratory sweeps of the neighboring systems while the Klingons seem content to wait until we find something to fight. Station construction is, surprisingly, going according to plan, and we're beginning plans to put a facility on the class planet. Which brings me to the reason for contacting you..."

"You want a planetside exploration team for the L-class world. We're happy to help - we'll get started right away. Anything else?"

"Assuming the station is complete, there will be a fleet staff meeting in Conference 1 at 1730 tomorrow."

"Very good," said Mikey, suppressing a sigh at the prospect of the meeting. "Daystrom out." As the screen faded to the familiar UFP seal, Mikey turned to Hewer and said, "Get a survey team and security complement ready. Ge'haan, ready the Shadow Fox and load one of the ground vehicles. And everyone - let's all start thinking of new names for that ship, please?"

[Mark]

USS Daystrom-Holodeck 1

If Dr. Holmes had been a lesser man, he would have thought he'd died and gone to the proverbial heaven. As it was, these two sexual vixions he'd created in the holodeck had been specially programmed to bring a man, and keep him at the point of ecstasy for a long....long time. The thing that the Doctor loved the most about having sex with holograms was that they had absoulutely no inhibitions whatsoever. He lay back in sheer bliss as four highly skilled hands caressed, touched, and teased him, bringing him closer and closer to the edge with every passing second. Just as he felt the building that he had yearned for, the comm system went off sounding quite like a foghorn in his opinion.

"MEDICAL EMERGENCY!!! DR. HOLMES, REPORT TO SICKBAY AT ONCE!!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" Holmes screamed in sheer frustration, as he quickly stood up and grabbed his cane.

As he made his way to the holodeck door he ordered "Computer, save program. Don't you DARE lose my place."

The doors parted and he stode out into the corridor, thinking to himself "It's probebly a sprained ankle. God, what kind of idiots did they assign to me?".

Reaching the turbolift the doors parted to reveal it already had two occupants aboard, a pretty looking little lieutenant, and a rather large and stocky ensign. Both looked rather surprised when he entered the lift.

"One side, medical emergency" he announced importantly, striding into the lift as if it was his personal property.

"Sickbay" he ordered the lift.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When the lift doors opened, Holmes was busy wondering what kind of medical affliction could cause rampent stupidity in the crew. Briefly looking back, the pretty young lieutenant was nearly completely red in the face and staring intently at the control panal of the lift. The stocky ensign, however gave Holmes a wink and a suggestive grin as the doors closed.

"Morons" he muttered to himself as he hobbled along as fast as he could to Sickbay.

The doors to Sickbay wisked open in time for him to overhear Dr. Salan pronounce, "There is nothing that can be done to save him. I'm sorry."

Bursting into the diagnostic ward Holmes took in the sceen at a glance. On the biobed was a young man, his face and upper torso horribly burned with what looked to be third degree burns. On one side, Piggy was injecting something via a hypospray into the young man's neck, while on the other, Dr. Salan stood calmly pronouncing his fate, as the large breasted nurse, whom Holmes only thought of as Chesty, looked as if she was ready to burst into tears.

Another rather scorched looking individual, the ships Chief Engineer, Liam Hewer stood at the foot of the bed looking rather stunned. With a quick and practiced eye, Holmes judged that the Engineer's wounds, however painful, were only superficial.

"What happened?" Holmes barked, as he snatched the medical tricorder out of the Vulcan doctor's hand. Everyone in the room looked shocked as the doctor came strolling in.

Hewer spoke up, "We were just doing some routine maintance to the plasma flow regulators on one of the plasma junctions. Ensign Young needed the practice, so I was kind of standing back when the damn thing exploded in his face. All that I can think of off the top of my head is that the restricter had a microfracture in it, and when he increased the flow again, it just gave out."

Dr. Salan cleared her thoat, "As I was telling Mr. Hewer, Doctor, there is nothing that we can do. I had Mr. Talknegreee administer something for the pain, but his lungs are completely thermalised, as well as extensive carbonization of his treacha.

Holmes looked at Dr. Salan with the single most contemptious look that anyone in the room had ever seen, and informed her, "Maybe there's nothing you can do, but if you have no objection, I'd still like to save his life."

Stunned, Dr. Salan stepped back as Holmes began rapidly punching keys on the tricorder, waving the wand over the patients mouth, throat, and chest. Looking up at the fading bio signs on the beds diagnostic panal he estimated that the man had about two minutes left to live.

Glancing back at Dr. Salan, he barked "Why don't you use that superior Vulcan intellect and see if you can manage to correctly get the surgical room ready. Oh, by the way, you have 30 seconds. Move."

Looking at his nurse, he said "Chesty, pull yourself together! I need 100 CCs of Tri-ox and 50 CCs of Isobarantan." As she started to object to the insanely high doses, Holmes informed her, "You, only have 15 seconds." Nodding at her breasts again he added "Don't let those things get in the way."

"Piggy", Holmes ordered. "That new internal holographic emitter we have on board. How exact can you get the specifications?"

"I can tune it perfectly, Gimpy. Why?" the Tellerite medic replied.

"Because if I can't get him breathing in the next 90 seconds, he'll become a turnip. We need to buy some time. I remember something I glanced at once, from the medical logs on the USS Voyager. They created holographic lungs for a patient once. Set it up." Holmes ordered.

Piggy, used to Holmes' unusual orders, scampered off to set the system up, and Lt. Elbram pressed both of the ordered hyposprays to the patients damaged throat, as Dr. Salan returned carrying a surgical gowns for all three of them.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6 hours later

Ensign Young was resting comfortably. Through some miracle of medicine, Holmes had saved the ensigns life. Holmes had somehow found enough lung tissue to begin cloning a new pair of lungs for the young man, and repaired all of the other internal injuries. For the time being he would have to be kept in an artificially induced coma, so that the holographic lungs would be able to do the job his reguar lungs would have. By next week though, the new lungs would be ready for the transplant into his chest. The young man would have to remain in Sickbay for at least three weeks after that, but the prognossis looked good.

As Holmes limped into the waiting area, untying his gown, he looked at the others. Dr. Salan looked completely shocked and unsetteled, her normal Vulcan facade having slipped during the second ressussitation with the cordical stimulators. Dropping her gown into the recycler, she proceeded past the few people present and exited Sickbay without a word.

Shaking his head at her as the door closed behind her, he shook his head and wondered how it was possible for a Vulcan to be so damn dense.

Lt. Elbram was looking at him with utter hero worship and adoration in her eyes. At that moment, Holmes knew for a fact that she would be spending the night in his quarters.

Captain W'trisk walked in and asked "How is he, Doctor?"

"Better than I am right now" Holmes replied.

"Will he be ok?" the Captain's antenne quivered with supressed irritation.

With an irreverant grin, the Doctor said "Don't worry, Mikey, he'll be fine."

"Excuse me?" the Andorian Captain looked taken aback

"Relax Skipper, it's good to be on a first name basis with your doctor. It promotes trust." Homles replied.

As Holmes finished untying the knot in the strings of his surgical gown, and tossing it as well into the recycler, the Captain looked momentarily taken aback as well.

"What is it with you people? I've been getting that reaction ever since I left the holodeck." Holmes complained.

With a perfectly straight face, the Captain replied. "Doctor, I'm impressed with your work today. You are truly a brilliant surgeon. I'd be even more impressed with you if you hadn't forgotten your pants in the holodeck. Don't worry, I'll have someone bring them to you."

Realization flooded Holmes. All of those odd looks, embarrassed crewman, and one leering ensign suddenly made sense.

"No need, your Captain-ness. I have every intention of finishing what I started. Pants would just get in the way." Holmes said. Looking at his nurse, who still was looking at him with those worshipful eyes, he asked

"Would you like to join me?"

[Teaos]

" and we'll have the ore refining plant operational within 48 hours sir" one of the engineering crewmen reported to Teaos.

With Fletcher Commanding the Paladin and with very little to do in his own department for the moment Fletcher had assigned Teaos to the set up of the planetary base.

It had taken a few days scouting to find a suitable location for it but now they had the kit built base was growing fast.

With cargo holds, personal quarters, workshops, labs and some limited refining and production facilities the planetary base along with the Starbase would greatly increase the fleets over all staying power and capabilities.

"When can we start transferring crew from the fleet to the base?" Teaos asked as he read the key points on the PADD he had been given.

"I would advise against moving anyone onto the base until we have at least finished the primary construction as the integrity of the whole structure wont be optimal until then. There is still a small chance of a catastrophic breach until we have the SIF running" The crewmen reported as they both climbed the bare metal stairs.

"Yes we don't wont another repeat of Omacron VI" Teaos said recalling the lose of an entire scientific core when their research facility had a catastrophic power failure, it only took seconds for the entire crew to perish in the toxic atmosphere.

"Very well, I'll hand on the report to Commander Rochey. Good work Ensign" Teaos said stepping onto the transporter pad.

[shran]

USS Daystrom, one of the many crawlways between the decks, somehwere deep inside the ship, fleet time: 19:19

Petty officer Nijhof and some fellow crewmen are working on tertiary bypasses.

As they reached the end of the crawlway, another section fo the deck was almost done. This shift was getting tired of foing the same boring job, and you noticed it. Short fuses, slightly raised tempers, the like.

"Kasper, please explain to me why we are crawling all over the ship installing unneccesary TERTIARY bypasses?"

Clearly, the Andorian crewman working with petty officer Nijhoff was tired of doing the same job the entire shift round. And they weren't eve halfway through.

"OK, I'll tell you the reason for the umpteenth time. Chief engineer mcDuff on the USS Pegasus thought it was a good idea to fit tertiary bypasses in the power grid of the USS Paladin, for safety reasons. Almost all senior officers on this flet served on the same ship once, being the USS Daystrom. Through their close bonds to each other and their common sense, they decided that it would be sensible if other ships would also get these safeties."

'Why do you always do it in such a formal way? You know you aren't a calculator."

"You know, now you are making an interesting remark. The doctor DID think of me as a calculator."

"I just knew it. Me, one of the best Andorians on board this ship, member of the Ushaan-Kraka clan, is being bossed around by a calculator."

"I may be a calculator according to the doctor, I do not consider myself to be one. Please find some better way to express yoursleves, Iceman, or I might be forced to include certain remakrs in my weekly report of the shifts. So, keep it cool."

Boiling point crept a little closer. So did the end of this crawlway, but the boiling point would be reached before the end of the crawlway if this continued.

"Would you please hand me that extra piece of cable? Next section is about to come up in this crawlway."

"Yes," the Andorian replied mockingly.

"now, only three more sections, and we're done for now."

"Good. Three more sections for you to answer the other part of my question. Why such a formal choice of words?"

"Your universal translator?"

"You should know as a calculator that today's calculators include everything, pinkskin."

"It is about the distance. Both social and absolute and distance from me to myself."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll find out over the course of our time together. And you might want to try the doctor. He knows more about me than I know about myself."

"Point being, you don't want to address that point."

"Correct."

The end of the crawlway was reached, and the two crewmen stepped into the relative fresh air....Of yet another crawlway.

[Mikey]

The Daystrom's patrols reported the return of the Romulan ships. "I guess the meeting will be held as scheduled," Mikey sighed. "You have the bridge, Commander." His antennae sagged as he made his way to the transporter room.

In the conference room of the station, Mikey sat by his fellow captains. The Romulan commanders sat a bit apart with a pert intensity. The Klingons arrived last, throwing themselves into seats to slouch unceremoniously.

"Good to see you, W'trisk," said Fletcher.

"You too, sir. The Paladin looks like a fine ship," Mikey answered.

"Hopefully it won't come to it, but she can kick ass six ways from Sunday," Fletcher said with a proud grin.

Finally Commodore Grayling entered, followed closely by Commander Rochey. The sight of the Tholian drew surprised grunts from the Klingons and icy stares from the Romulans, save one bemused-looking middle-aged woman; Commander D'tyra, Mikey guessed.

"Good afternoon, everyone," Grayling began. The commodore then began reciting a litany of assignments and check-in protocols, punctuated by Rochey handing out PADD's and terse clarifications and confirmations.

When the commodore finished, Rochey stood at the front of the room. "All ships operating outside this system will report to me every four hours," he began. The Klingons began to groan in protest, and Rochey continued firmly, "Or will not operate. For vessels not on an operation, the station will be available for limited leave. Does anyone have anything to add?"

Commanders Mer'an and D'tyra exchanged a brief comment in Romulan before D'tyra said, "On our last sweep, we detected an energy signature. The system's star was volatile and directly aligned with us and the signature, so there was too much interference for any conclusive scans."

"You will return to conduct a more definitive scan." D'tyra bristled at the Tholian's tone but said nothing. Rochey continued, "If there is nothing else..." After a moment's pause, Commodore Grayling dismissed the assembly.

***************

The Lacron approached the system from above the orbital plane. "I have the energy signature, ma'am," called the officer at ops, "and it's definitely a ship. "Karemma freighter, minimal offensive capability, cargo appears to comprise typical trade goods. They are hailing us."

"Main viewer," said D'tyra. To the image of the Karemma that appeared, she said, "Greetings. I am Commander D'tyra of the RSE Lacron."

"A Romulan ship?!" spluttered the shocked Karemma. "I- I'm going to have to report this immediately."

N'yatra broke in, "We are here with your government's authorization, and we will have some information from you." Grr'lek coughed quietly.

Under her breath, D'tyra murmured, "We have a liaison officer with us, subcommander. Perhaps he can demonstrate his area of expertise?"

"Thank you, commander," Grr'lek said quietly, then addressed the screen. "I beg your pardon. We didn't intend to startle you. You may report directly to our governmental observers; we are here under Dominion auspices." He punched a few buttons to transmit the fleet's authorization to the Karemma ship, then smiled and continued, "The Karemma are known as honest and fair traders; we have installed a temporary station and base in a nearby system, and I believe an extended arrangement with such people to supply merchandise might be welcome. Would you care to accompany us back?"

The Karemma's expression brightened at the phrase "extended arrangement." After double-checking the authorization code, he looked up and said, "I believe we would. Please lead the way."

[Mark]

USS PEGASUS-MAIN ENGINEERING

Master Chief McDuff looked on approvingly at his staff. After serving as long as he had, and watching generation after generation of young Starfleet officers come and go, he couldn't help but take pride in his people's accomplishments. He had at least three future Chief Engineers in this group, and another who would end up designing new Starships after a few more years of field experience.

"As long as nothing ruins them." He ruefully thought to himself.

At that moment his combadge chirped, and a voice announced "All senior officers please report to the conference room."

With a mixed feeling of butterflies and lead in his gut, he knew that this meant they were heading off into action.
________________________________________________________________________

As the doors to the conference room opened, McDuff saw that only the Captain hadn't arrived yet. Glancing around the room, he saw all of the Pegasus' senior officers at the table. Lt. Cmdr Niles sat near the head of the table, quietly reviewing some notes on his PADD. Next to him, the Operations officer, Lt. Laren Kyra sat with a look of poorly suppressed excitement, while she nervously fiddled with her Bajoran earring. McDuff noticed that the young lady was ostracized by quite a bit of the crew over her religious beliefs, but she bore up well nevertheless. He made a mental note to reach out to her a bit. Across the table was the Security Chief, LtJg. Sara Tucker and the SILO, Lt. Cmdr Tina Jordan. Tucker studiously avoided the Master Chief's eyes, no doubt remembering her attempted seduction of the old man, which ended in her passing out cold in his arms just before reaching her quarters.

"At least today she looks sober." He thought to himself.

Jordan was another matter entirely. She stared daggers at the old man, and the expression on her face was somewhere between disgust and hate. She and McDuff continued to butt heads over the ships systems, until finally, he caught her pulling out a phaser bypass that he'd installed, which would allow the ships phasers to be run directly off the impulse engines if main warp power would ever be knocked offline. When he ordered her to stop, she refused, ruining several hours worth of work with a few careless tugs. As a result, he called security, and had her forcibly escorted out of engineering. Within minutes, the two of them were in front of the Captain, who, much to Jordan's chagrin, sided with McDuff. Shaking his head over the sheer silliness of it all, he took a seat next to Laren, just as the Captain entered. Commander Carly Berkley was an average looking women in her forties. McDuff knew that she was a competent scientist and a good officer, but privately wondered about her command abilities, especially under pressure. During his conflict with Jordan he was almost sure he noticed the Captain flinch when the SILO started her predictable yelling. He admitted that he may be unfair in his assessment, however. After all he had served under such legends as Captain Harriman, Captain Sulu, and Captain Garrett, but having served under leaders like that, as well as some complete screw-ups, gave him a pretty good feel for an officer's command potential.

The Captain spoke, "Ladies and Gentleman, we have our first assignment. A rather dense nebula, which we have nicknamed the Porthos Nebula, is approximately 8 days away at cruising speed. Taking into account the Founder's fondness for hiding in nebulas it has been decided that it would be a good idea for the Pegasus to check it out. Does anyone have any questions?"

Niles raised his hand. "Will we have any tactical support, Captain?"

"Good question, Commander" the Captain replied. "The Klingons will be sending one of their ships in a support role. However, this nebula is unusually dense. None of the other ships in the fleet, except for ours have sensors strong enough to penetrate very far. So the Klingons will be escorting us to and from the nebula, but not actually entering with us."

The more experienced officers looked at each other a bit nervously at that. A lone science ship would be an easy victim for an ambush, especially inside a nebula where their shields wouldn't function.

McDuff spoke up, "For what it's worth Captain, I know a few tricks that will boost the gain and the sensitivity on the sensors by about 30% in that soup, as long as we don't stay there to long. Otherwise, we risk burning out the sensor net. But it should be good enough for a week or so without doing any permanent damage."

Jordan snorted and was about to say something when Niles gave her an icy look which apparently made her think twice. She fell silent.

"Perfect, Master Chief." The Captain replied, "Get started on those modifications immediately. If there's nothing else, let's get underway."

[Teaos]

Fletcher strode down one of the narrow hallways of the Starbase facility.

A report had come in a few hours ago from Mikey stating he had sent a local merchant their way and that they should be at the station with in the hour.

Fletcher and Grayling had quickly decided that this was a chance to gather information on the local space that they couldn't pass up.

With most of his senior staff busy either setting up base or working on the murder case Fletcher has assigned himself the duty of dealing with the traders.

Stopping at a intersection of hallways as a group of crewmen moved several large cargo containers on a antigrav platform Fletcher sent a message off to his Yeoman to prepare a meal for the guests in what ever style they felt most appropriate.

Seeing he still had over half and hour until the traders were due to arrive Fletcher walked the short distance to the crew common area to get a drink. The smell of cooking greeted him as he entered the circular room and signalled the crewman on duty for a drink.

Today was going to be a long day

[Monroe]

Valkyrie:

Munro handed Captain Tusk the series of reports about the daily happenings of the ship. Having already gone through them all he had typed a quick summary at the bottom. With Tusk having served as a security officer for many years and Munro having become someone of some reknown for his tactical lead against the Brotherhood (though Starfleet proper never did give him his due) they were exceptionally hard on the Security chief Cix.

Cix in turn seemed to flourish in that kind of environment, to Murno's satisfaction, and in turn passed that on to his security crew. So when Munro had heard about the murder on the Paladin similiar security measures he had installed on the Daystrom were quickly agreed on by the Captain and the chief of security seemed happy to implement them. Though Murno wondered if the Xindi took offense to having his XO step into his area of expertise. Reguardless it was Munro's perogative. He'd suspect that Borg drone that Voyager liberated to step on the toes of the science crew on her ship. Munro lamented silently that he was not placed under a drone's command. The lack of personal touches would have been ironically pleasing.

Munro looked back to the Captain who hadn't spoken since digesting the report Murno had given him. "Very good," The captain said finally breaking the Breen's train of thought. "Oh, the Nova ship, the Rainbow or Starshine, whatever the hell it is, is going into the Nebula. I want you to drill the crew on some surprise attacks and nebula fighting senerios in case something of this arrives."

"Yes sir."

"I heard you put your army in Earth's World War One to teach them how to fight?" Munro nodded indicating the Captain heard right. Continuing Tusk added, "Good man."

[Mark]

USS Paladin - Ensign Collin's Quarters

It was deep into ship's night when Mark re-entered the crime scene. They had gone over everything with a fine tooth comb. They had micro-scanned every piece of furniture in the room for DNA evidence and even old fashioned fingerprints. There was simply NOTHING, anywhere in the room. The murderer was quite intelligent it seemed. However, they did make one mistake when they didn't realize that the phaser should have been vaporized with a suicide. Therefore, Mark found it quite logical that they COULD have made a second mistake as well.

Looking around the room, Mark asked himself, "What am I missing?"

The first thing that he had thought of was to look for signs of a struggle, of which there were none. It seemed to him that the attacker had simply walked in, disintegrated Mr. Collins, dropped the phaser, typed a short suicide note on the terminal to throw off the investigation, and walked out. He had scanned the keyboard on the terminal for residual DNA but the results were inconclusive. He checked the computer records of who had entered and left these quarters, even who had rang the buzzer. There were simply no records of anything.

All at once an idea came to Mark. He stepped outside into the corridor again, and scanned the outside door entry panel very closely. His tricorder read several different bits of DNA on the outer panel, but one stood out more than any of the others. He would need to bring the readings to sickbay to have the DNA identified, but even as he walked towards the turbolift he had to wonder, "Why would a Vulcan be visiting Ensign Collins on the day he was murdered?"
________________________________________________________________________
USS Paladin - Security Office

Taking a deep breath, Mark used one of the first calming techniques that his adoptive parents taught him, trying to suppress the irrational butterflies he felt in his stomach. He reminded himself that today, he had no reason to fear the Vulcan sitting in front of him, no matter what had happened all of those years ago.

"Torak, this is Lieutenant Junior Grade Miller," Mark introduced his deputy to the black eyed Vulcan who sat at the table. "And again, I wish to express my gratitude for your volunteering to come and answer these questions."

"Your gratitude is irrelevant" Torak replied, "I am quite busy. Ask your questions."

"Very well," Mark began, "You are aware of the murder of one of my security officers, Ensign Daniel Collins?"

"I am" the Vulcan answered.

"On the morning of the murder," Mark went on "You visited Mr. Collins quarters, did you not?"

Torak replied "It would seem logical that you already know the answer to that question before asking it, therefore one must wonder why you felt it logical to ask it the first place."

Lt Miller, jumped in with an exaggerated southern drawl, "Sugar, why you tryin' to double talk us?"

Torak simply raised his eyebrow in response as Mark interjected, "As colorfully as Deputy Miller put it, the question is quite valid."

"I was simply pointing out that asking questions that you already know the answer to is a waste of time." Torak replied, "However, since you deem it so important yes, I did visit the Ensign that morning."

"I can't help but be curious as to why." Mark responded.

Raising his eyebrow again, Torak answered "In the spirit of delicacy, let me simply say the Ensign and I were, entertaining each other."

Miller raised both of her eyebrows and stood up in surprise, "Your telling me that you and Collins were sleeping together?"

With his usual unreadable expression, Torak said "Your interpretation is imprecise. There was very little sleeping occurring during our meeting."

Mark then changed tracks, "Would you have any idea why there is no record of your ever being in the Ensign's quarters on the computer?"

Torak remained unflappable "It would seem logical that as the Paladin is such a new ship, it still has a computer glitch or two. Are we finished yet? I really must get back to work now."

Mark nodded, and the Vulcan gracefully rose and left the room. Miller looked at Mark, and he irrationally thought for a moment that she must be able to hear the loud thudding of his heart. However, her eyes looked lost in confused thought.

"There's somethin' about him that stinks to high heaven." She stated.

At that moment, Mark's combadge chirped. Mark tapped the badge on his chest and replied, "Mark here."

"Lieutenant," Captain Fletcher's voice echoed threw the room "Report to cargo bay 3 on the double. We've found one of the Vulcan scientists, Dr. Turod. His neck has been broken."

[Mikey]

"Incoming patrol report," Ge'haan called out. Mikey straightened in his chair. "Delta patrol confirms... three standard comets in extraplanar orbits."

"Wonderful," Mikey replied, rising and pacing. "Send to fleet command: 'Daystrom ready to accompany recon missions.' I'll be in my ready room." After he spent a few minutes distractedly skimming through drill results and readiness reports, Darel buzzed in.

"The cry- er, Commander Rochey responds: negative, Daystrom to remain at readiness for rapid deployment," Darel said as Mikey entered the bridge and resumed his pacing.

Presently Mikey stopped his restless wandering, muttered, "You have the bridge" to Ge'haan, and proceeded to spend two hours in combat exercises in the holodeck. Even that didn't help alleviate the restlessness and frustration Mikey felt.

After showering and changing, Mikey sat at his desk and absently checked his terminal for fleet updates. He noticed that the Pegasus was due to leave in two hours to surveil a nearby nebula. He smiled crookedly and commed the bridge. "Jon? The ship is yours for a couple of days. I'm taking a little excursion."

"Captain, I have to insist that you remain here and allow me to assign a team-"

"Nonsense. This isn't an away mission... the Pegasus is headed out on a recon run to a nebula, and her Klingon escorts won't be able to enter with her. I will."

"Even so, sir..." Hewer sounded resigned to losing the argument, but tried nonetheless. "A fighter escort..."

"Wouldn't be able to keep up. I'll have a pair of Vor'chas to babysit me. Get the Sha- er, the Tigerfish ready, and see if we have any volunteers to ride shotgun. I leave in two hours."

[Reliant121]

D'Tyra pushed carelessly past a lower ranking Centurion, rushing toward the shuttlebay. A klaxon was sounding, and a large contingent of security guards and engineers were already on route to the scene. She had no idea what had happened down there. But believe you and me, she intended to find out.

At first, it was barely noticable. A small shudder that rocked the inertial dampeners shook the bridge, and rather ceremoniously managed to spill the Commander's A'heiva (A beverage somewhat similar to coffee) across the deck plating. She was about to pass it off as a random blip, possibly a turbulence pocket, when a klaxon sounded, and the lighting across the ship dimmed. It had taken merely seconds for her to be in the turbolift, following the computer screaming "Vaed'rae! U'earr Saerhv" or "Attention! internal explosion!". She had glanced at a hull status display before the attendant scrambled to see what was wrong, and divert recovery teams. Shuttlebay 1. The only one aboard.

Emerging from the turbolift, she was greeted by a security detail, wielding the compact, newly designed Romulan rifles (much different from the Reman weapons) she had requisitioned. They parted their brigade for her to pass, yet did not stop. She drew her disruptor pistol, and set it to high stun before advancing into the group. Coming to a halt at shuttlebay doors, they aimed their weapons at the door. Checking that the atmosphere was stable, of which it was; The leading officer stepped through the threshold.

It was apparent there was no need for his rifle. A great plume of smoke, accompanied by a billowing fire was sprouting from one of the shuttle pods. It was a newer type of attack craft, in response to the debut of the Falcon class fighters of the the Federation. It appeared that the Deuterium tank had been set alight. It was a miracle that the explosion had not ruptured the hull, a testiment to the new hull armour measures implemented on the Norexan class cruisers. She hoped that the new Battleship that was rumoured to be in design to replace the aging D'Deridex, would incorporate much the same features.

"Fire teams to shuttle bay! Grade 3: serious fire!" She cried over the active intercom, as the security fanned out across the bay. A technician hurried over to the fighter...and dropped his tool kit in surprise. Turning to the commander, he mouthed something that was indecipherable over the roaring of the intense fire. He mouthed it slower, and clearer this time...Clear enough for her to comprehend.

"Sabotage."

[Mark]

IKS Karam - Main Bridge - On Station Outside the Porthos Nebula

Captain Krem was bored out of his proverbial mind. Babysitting a bunch of scientists while they conducted scientific research in a big dust cloud was beyond him. At first he saw the potential for great glory when the Karam was assigned to escort the Starfleet science ship on the first recon patrol of the mission. It seemed as if Kahless himself intervened when the Var'nof experienced a major systems malfunction and had to break off and return to base. But now, with hour after hour, then day after day of nothing happening, the waiting was beginning to grate on his warrior's nerves.

Suddenly, an alarm bleeped from the science officer's console. The science officer reported, "Captain, I have what could be a ship on long range sensors. Bearing 213 mark 117."

Krem jumped to his feet with a roar of anticipation. "Activate the cloaking device! Helm, lay in an intercept course, maximum speed!"

Nod, the grizzled fossil of a first officer spoke up, "Captain, our orders are to remain here to safeguard the humans. This could be a diversion. We must hold our position and complete our mission."

Krem snarled and struck Nod across the face with the back of his fist, then barked "Age has made you soft! Honor and glory are for the young and the bold!" Turning to the expectant helm officer, he bellowed "Execute!" Krem felt his pulse begin to pound in perfect time with the vibrations of the deck plate.
________________________________________________________________________
Shuttlecraft Two - Porthos Nebula

McDuff was sore all over. Three day long missions in a shuttlecraft were for the young, or for the insane, of which he was neither. Of course, he had only himself to blame. His success modifying the ships sensors in the nebula had prompted the captain to ask if he could do the same to the Pegasus's two shuttlecrafts. He had actually been able to increase the sensitivity of the sensors on the smaller ships by about 35%, prompting this away mission.

"At least I'm enjoying the company." He thought to himself, as he glanced over at the Bajoran Operations Officer, Lt. Laren. Laren and McDuff recognized kindred spirits in each other as they were both loners, he due to his great age, and she due to her controversial religious beliefs.

"If only I was 40 years younger," the Master Chief thought to himself with a bit of chuckle, "I'd STILL be to old for her." Silently laughing at certain urges he thought long dead, he went back to navigating the designated patrol route.

Shuttlecraft One, crewed by Lt Cmdr Jordan and Lt jg Tucker, was on the far side of the nebula, with the Pegasus herself scanning the middle. Lt Cmdr Niles estimated they could shave three days off of there mission by splitting up, as it was expected to be a fruitless mission. After all, the odds were pretty high against the Alliance getting lucky enough to make contact on their first mission.

A soft beep came from the sensor panel. McDuff asked "Find something ma'am eer Kyra?" he quickly amended after catching a dark sideways glance from the young lady. Living and working together in such tight quarters had put them on a first name basis rather quickly, it seemed.

"I'm picking up an anomalous reading." Laren replied, "I can't make out what it is from this distance with all of this interference, but an object of this kind of mass is pretty unusual for this class of nebula. It's at bearing 045 mark 127. Lay in a course, Donzo. Let's take a look."

"Acknowledged. Altering heading." McDuff replied, rolling his eyes at his nickname. "Donzo. It sounds like something you'd name a damn muppet." He thought to himself as he busied himself at the controls.

An hour later they approached the coordinates of the reading, and McDuff felt his heart lurch. Directly ahead of them, hidden deep inside the heart of the nebula, was a damn space station, and around it were at least a half dozen Jem'Hadar attack ships.

Whispering, as if the very volume of her voice would give them away, Laren said "Pah Wraiths defend us. Donzo, I don't think we've been picked up on sensors yet. Get us out of here, very quickly and VERY carefully."

"Yeah," McDuff replied, working very fast at the helm, "I think your right. Reversing thrusters. I don't want our impulse wake to give us away until we're clear."

Nodding, Laren said, "While you get us out of here, I'm sending a tight beam transmission to the Pegasus. We've all got to get the hell out of here. When you get us clear, set a course to rendezvous with the Klingons. They should be able to hold off these bugs."
________________________________________________________________________
USS Pegasus - Main Bridge - Porthos Nebula

"We're coming up on the edge of the nebula, Captain." The conn officer reported.

Captain Berkley felt a rush of relief. She felt just on the edge of panic after they received the transmission from Shuttlecraft Two about the Jem'Hadar ships. As odd as it sounded for a Starfleet Captain, she had never actually seen real combat. During the war, she hadn't served on a front line ship, but on a medical ship, which only arrived after the fighting was all over. She had been an adequate tactician in the simulator at Command School, but this was different. It finally hit home that her life and the lives of her entire crew were in jeopardy. She's heard that said before, even said it a time or two in passing to impress others with her new command, but for the first time in her life, truly understood what it meant.

As they cleared the nebula, her First Officer, Lt Cmdr Niles spoke up, "Where the hell are the Klingons?"

Just then an explosion rocked the ship, sending Berkley and Niles both to the deck and forcing the rest of the crew to hold onto there consoles for dear life, as the computer automatically activated Red Alert, and sounded the blaring klaxon.

Without thinking, she ordered, "Full power to the shields! Report!"

The officer at Tactical reported "Ma'am, there are four Jem'Hadar ships closing on our position."

"Hail them." The Captain ordered.

"No response." Tactical replied.

Niles looked at the conn officer, and said "Get us out of here, maximum warp!"

Looking slightly panicked the young man replied "The warp drive is off line, sir. That shot blasted a hole in our port nacelle."

"Then get me full impulse, mister." Niles ordered, "Evasive maneuvers pattern Epsilon 6."

"Aye, sir" was the response.

Captain Berkely shouted to the duty Ops Officer, "Open a subspace channel to the fleet, coded AND encrypted. Don't let them trace the transmission! This is the Pegasus! We are under heavy attack! Our escort is missing, and we have been engaged by four, I repeat four Jem'Hadar attack fighters!"

The ship rocked with four more subsequent hits. One panel on the wall shorted out, but surprisingly didn't explode. "What do you know?" The Captain thought distractedly, "The old man was right."

Niles was already taking the offensive. "Target the lead ship. Give 'em a full phaser and torpedo spread. FIRE!" The sound of the Pegasus's weapons was a dim but reassuring contrast to the sound of the incoming fire. The bug on the main viewscreen lurched as first the torpedo struck it from behind, and then began venting plasma as the little science ships phasers broke through and penetrated its aft quarter forcing it to veer away.

"Report!" Berkley ordered as the ship shuddered again under another volley of incoming fire, this one causing the overhead lights to flicker.

"Shields are down to 27%" The Tactical Officer reported, "Main power is offline, and we've lost our aft weapons as well. They seem to be targeting our engines and weapons systems."

"Captain, we're being hailed by one of the Jem'Hadar vessels." The Ops officer reported.

Feeling her heart in her throat, Berkley ordered "On screen". The image of a smiling Vorta replaced that of the attacking ships on the main viewscreen.

Taking a deep breath she stood and took a couple of steps forward before she began speaking, "I'm Captain Carly Berkley of the Starship Pegasus. We've come on a peaceful mission. Please, break off your attack."

"I don't think so, Captain." The Vorta replied. "You see, we know about the invasion force you brought through the wormhole at the invitation of our misguided brethren. You have only one chance to save your ship and crew Captain. You will surrender your vessel, and tell us where to find your fleet."

Desperately the Captain began, "Please, you don't have to do this. We've come to negotiate a peaceful solution to this " and was cut off as the screen went dead.

"Incoming fire!" Tactical reported.

The ship bucked and heaved, most of the panels on the bridge shorting out and spilling officers all over the deck. The Captain was thrown backwards, and cracked her head with a sickening thunk on the corner of the command dais. Niles bent and checked her pulse, but already could tell from the vacant expression in her eyes that she was dead.

"Sir, internal sensors are showing multiple Jem'Hadar boarding parties have beamed over to the ship." Ops reported.

Niles knew it was a hopeless situation. If the renegades captured Pegasus, they would be able to eventually crack its computer and find the coordinates of the fleet. He also knew that there was no way they could hold the ship. There was only one option left.

"Computer," he ordered "activate auto destruct sequence. Authorization Niles Pi-Gamma 1-6."

"Denied" the computer replied "Insufficient Authorization"

"Override code-66. The Captain's dead." Niles continued.

"Override accepted." The computer announced.

Quickly, Niles guessed how long it would take his surviving crew to evacuate against how long it would take the Jem'Hadar to secure the ship.

"Computer, two minute, silent countdown." Niles ordered.

"Acknowledged" the computer replied "Auto destruct sequence has been activated. Two minutes until auto destruct. There will be no further audible warnings."

Keying the ship's internal comm., Niles announced "All hands, abandon ship. I repeat, all hands, abandon ship."

Grabbing his hand phaser from his chair, as well as the one from the Captain's chair, he looked around at the bridge crew. "Clear the bridge." He ordered. Glancing at the stunned expressions the bridge crew gave him, he roared at them, "I SAID CLEAR THE BRIDGE!!! Get to your designated escape pods if you can! Move!!!" Training took over and people efficiently evacuated the bridge, leaving him by himself in a matter of seconds. Then, taking a deep breath, he gave the final order of his life, "Computer, seal the bridge." As he thought to himself "These sons of bitches WILL NOT get that data." He only hoped he could hold the Jem'Hadar back long enough for the ship to carry out its final mission.
________________________________________________________________________
Shuttlecraft Two - Porthos Nebula

McDuff stared in open mouthed horror at what they were seeing as they were clearing the nebula. There was his ship, battered and broken, hanging in space, surrounded by three Jem'Hadar attack ships. A fourth, apparently heavily damaged hung back somewhat.

With a vengeful notion he thought "At least we gave the bastards a bloody nose."

Just then, a tiny handful of escape pods launched from Pegasus, as a sickening feeling grew in the pit of McDuff's stomach.

"Dear God," he began as suddenly his ship, his beloved Pegasus was enveloped in a white light, followed by raging plasma fires and a concussive blast that scattered the escape pods as well as bits and pieces of the ship in all directions and rocked the Jem'Hadar vessels as well.

As the light from the explosion cleared and the debris field began spreading out, he saw two of the Jem'Hadar bugs begin moving towards the helpless escape pods.

Laren looked over at McDuff, and asked "Donzo, what do we do now?"

McDuff shook his head and said, "Pray."

[Thorin]

Mikey was talking to the flight deck duty officer in front of a large schematic of the Tigerfish. Jon walked into the shuttlebay and approached the captain.

"The Ravage reports no unusual activity in the vicinity of the nebula. You're all set," said Jon, still somewhat apprehensive about allowing his captain to travel almost unescorted for so long a time. Mikey nodded in response.

"And who have you given me for company?" asked Mikey, raising an eyebrow.

Jon looked at the PADD in his hand, "I've assigned Ensigns... Stanley, Perry, Ptekh, Robins, Gror't, Yong, and Renwick; Lieutenant Juniors' Elbram, Friedman and Schroding; and Lieutenants Sternson and Hewer."

Mikey eyed his executive officer suspiciously, "That's a mighty large crew don't you think?"

"Fourteen? The Tigerfish is a mighty big ship, I just didn't want you to get lonely," Jon coughed, "...Sir. Besides, I thought you were going to survey some nebulae? Most of those are the some of the few scientists we've got - they don't get too much work in the field on a ship like this. Renwick and Perry are fine pilots, two of our best, and Schroding is on the fast track to commanding that Paladin over there one day, I know a good tactical officer when I see one. Elbram and Friedman are on ops: they've both been on bridge duty before," Mikey nodded approvingly, "And Lieutenant Hewer was put forward by his assistant chief, I think she wanted some time with the engines alone."

Jon handed Mikey the PADD and Mikey skimmed over the names again, before quietening his voice and leaning his antennas in towards Hewer. "Commander, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were keeping an eye on me."

Jon cocked an eyebrow, "Sorry, Captain?"

Mikey smiled and beckoned over the flight deck officer. "Chief, ready the shuttlebay. When everyone's arrived prepare for immediate departure."

"Aye sir," responded the Chief, who turned around and gave the thumbs up to a woman who was looking over from the control room on a raised level.

Over the next five minutes a stream of people entered the shuttlebay, walking straight over to the three men and shaking hands with the captain, who, after everyone assigned had turned up, gave a quick briefing on the surveying nature of the mission. He then directed them towards the large doors of the Tigerfish.

Mikey's voice came over the comms; "Commander, you have the Daystrom. Take care of her. USS Tigerfish requesting permission to disembark."

Jon pushed some buttons on a nearby console and quickly looked round at the shuttlebay staff. "Permission granted sir. Daystrom out."

The instantly recognisable sirens of the massive shuttlebay doors opening echoed round the room, and the Tigerfish gracefully lifted and glided out through the permeable forcefield. After a minute of low impulse, the small starship engaged its warp engines and was on its way to the nebula, on a catch up mission to the Pegasus.

Jon left the shuttlebay and made his way to the bridge, relieving Darel from the captain's chair.

"Commander Gee'han, keep a constant sensor lock on the Tigerfish. If we get any hint of suspicious activity from that nebula, I want warp nine point nine available on an intercept course immediately."

[Reliant121]

D'Tyra stood, spreying the fire extinguisher at the flames. They seemed quite resilient, and unwilling to die down by hand-held means. Unfortunately the Sprinkler's power conduit had been damaged by the explosion, making them virtually useless. She had ordered that they be repaired.

5 minutes later, the refreshing if somewhat sharp feel of cold gas swept over her person. The fire barely remained for minutes before it was quenched by the streams of gas. Satisfied that the ship was no longer in danger, She wanted to know what the hell was going on.

"N'yatra! This has been an incident of sabotage. Now, quite simply I do not have the time to investigate on my own. And I know how itching you have been for some opportunity like this. You are to find out what has happened. And you are to find out soon. Dismissed. Carry out your task, with the diligence of the Praetorian guard." With that D'tyra spun about and left.


___________________

"Commander?" Centurion Mi'serna said as D'Tyra emerged from the turbo-lift. "A shuttle-craft of some form just left the USS Daystrome. After extrapolating its course, it appears to be on a heading for the Porthos nebula."

"That is where the Pegasus and its idiot klingon guard are is it not?" She asked quizzically. He responded with a nod.

"Curious...why would extra forces be required? Set course for the Nebula, maximum warp. Engage the cloakind device as well." Settling into her chair, she flexed her fingers into a bridged arch, quite a typical position for her.

The cruiser spun about, and leapt into warp, furnished with the shimmering light of the cloaking device.