Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Proud Legion ❯ Patrol ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Proud Legion
By: bsmart

Disclaimer: Rated R for the good stuff, you’ve been warned. I don’t own Trek, but the people who do probably shouldn’t either.

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Chapter 4: Patrol

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"Captain, wake up captain."

Timothy blinked. There was something not quite right about this.

"Wake up or I turn on the alarm."

Timothy sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes to try and clear them. The lighting in his cabin was subdued but not off like he kept it during the night. Behind him he caught site of the stars streaking towards them as the Typhoon made its run to the Neutral Zone. All expected, all right. The unexpected part was the small redhead perched on the end of his bed. Her long curly hair and freckled face peering at him. Kaitlyn was dressed in a standard issue gray cotton tank top and gray cotton pants, both fitting quite loosely on her slim frame except over her large bust and hips. Finding a woman unexpectedly in his bed was something Timothy was familiar with, but hadn't had to deal with since he'd made captain a decade before.

"Good morning sir," she said cheerfully.

Timothy ran a hand through his hair, trying to clear the cobwebs from his mind. "What are you doing?"

"I figured this would be a nicer way to wake up than to some noisy alarm," she said. "I've already got your coffee and breakfast ready sir."

Timothy shook his head, Johan seemed to have knocked himself out designing Kaitlyn and he'd have to remember to thank him. As he tossed off his sheets and stood up he was suddenly very aware that Kaitlyn was watching him intently and the only thing he had on was a pair of black boxer briefs. He wasn't particularly self conscious, a good exercise regime and Starfleet's meticulous attention to nutrition in what its members ate had let him keep himself in excellent shape for his age. Still, Kaitlyn was cute and he was one small garment away from naked. He might not be fully awake but he would swear he'd caught her taking far more of a personal interest in his physique than he'd expect from an assistant. "Care to explain what you're doing in here?"

"In here sir?"

Timothy pointed indistinctly into the air. "Here, as in the emitters are supposed to be disabled."

"Oh that!" Kaitlyn exclaimed. "Commander Luhrner disabled the security protocols, he said it would be damned inconvenient if I couldn't follow you around, or turned off if I walked through the wrong door."

Timothy nodded, momentarily appeased. He broke from his usual routine to grab a pair of gym shorts from his dresser and pull them on. He wandered into his dining room with Kaitlyn in tow and found that she had gotten his breakfast ready, coffee, pancakes with syrup, bacon, and scrambled eggs. "Well I'll be damned. How'd you know?"

Kaitlyn beamed, obviously proud of herself again. "Well I am part of the computer. I accessed your replicator records for the last fifteen years. I correlated what you ate compared to your daily activities and determined that when cruising this was your breakfast of choice seventy eight percent of the time."

"How astute and what an incredible invasion of privacy," Timothy quipped as he started cutting up his pancakes.

"Sir?"

"I was under the impression such things were supposed to be kept sealed and only available to medical officers."

"Oh they are sir, but general eating habits are part of the public database that Starfleet keeps and makes available for research and study. The records are taken anonymously but it was a rather easy task to correlate reported eating habits from replicators you would commonly use along with duty logs for those days."

Timothy chewed on pancakes, staring out the windows of his cabin at the stars rushing towards them. He was definitely going to have to talk to Johan about her. It wasn't unheard of for data mining AI's to perform such feats, but it was unheard of for them to do such things just because they wanted to, and for them to be incorporated into holograms. "Well, aside from invading my privacy what else have you done this morning?"

Kaitlyn frowned but didn't press the issue. She hesitantly presented him with a large display PADD and said, "I ummm..."

Timothy looked at the contents of the PADD, cherry picked articles from the news agencies, journals, and periodicals he read the most often and the sections of them he spent the most time in. "I see you've been busy correlating more than just my eating habits."

"Yes sir," she said sheepishly.

Timothy felt another twinge of annoyance. "Am I really that much a creature of habit?"

"Just seventy one point three percent of the time."

Timothy shook his head. While he wasn't particularly happy about how much initiative his holographic aide was showing, or how easily she'd managed to deduce what he liked for breakfast and to read during it, he had to admit he was pleased she'd tried to get out in front of him like a good aide should. Besides, the collage of articles she'd put together made it easy to scan through the areas of his interest. He swallowed a mouthful of eggs and tilted the PADD down to make eye contact with Kaitlyn. "Just try and be more subtle about it in the future."

"Aye sir," she said perking up.

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Milana ran the towel through her hair again trying to get the last of the sea water out of it. For some reason no one bothered to include a freshwater shower in the cetacean lab to get the salt off. That would have to wait until she got back to her quarters and headed to the junior officer's shower.

She couldn't see where she was going for the light blue cotton of the towel in her eyes but when she finally pulled it away she was in for a rude surprise. She had to dart to the left to avoid her captain. The young ensign walking beside him saw her at the last moment and with more force than a tiny girl like her should be able to muster managed to pull the captain out of the way.

"What the hell Kaitlyn!?" Captain Hayes barked as he regained his footing and stopped looking at his PADD.

"Sorry sir," Milana said in stereo with the ensign.

Her commander looked at Milana first in recognition then in surprise. "Lieutenant Tuul, you're a bit under dressed for your duty shift."

Milana stood up straighter as she regained her composure. Her red once piece bathing suit was Starfleet issue but she still felt odd standing in front of her commander in it. "I was in the cetacean lab sir."

"From the looks of things all the way in it."

"Aye sir," she said. "I think the best way to interact with the cetaceans is in their own environment."

"And they didn't mind you?"

"No sir, they were fine with it, happy in fact. I mean if they can get used to the aquatic Xindi that are in there with them..."

"I'm surprised the dolphins can stand them. They're not the most patient creatures."

Milana relaxed a little as captain Hayes seemed content to talk as opposed to chew her out for not watching where she was going. "They've come to a kind of mutual understanding sir, and it's good. I think the Xindi are the only thing keeping the cetaceans calm."

"Why's that," the captain asked.

"Well sir, they say that space doesn't... well they say it doesn't taste right. It's got them pretty agitated. They've not been as much help as they usually are."

"How so?"

"Every course they help plot sort of curves away from the anomaly. They want to avoid it, badly. I'm not sure we're going to be able to get them back from this, not until we get away from the anomaly."

Milana watched as the captain mulled it over. Technically they didn't need the cetaceans to navigate with. They could be cut out of the navigation plotting loop entirely. Milana was already monitoring their refinements to her courses and had vetoed most of their refinements, unofficially cutting them out. She'd come down to the lab to try and talk it over with them along with Bob and Alice, the nicknames their two Xindi aquatic handlers had been given. The Xindi never complained about their names, probably because no other sentient one the ship had the vocal range to pronounce them and they said listening to everyone butcher their names was just this side of insulting. Both of them had established a special rapport with the dolphins and had helped improve the quality of their warp courses even more. Milana was eager to get them cetaceans back in line, their innate ability to read the fabric of subspace and refine their courses both before going to warp and while at high warp speeds were incredibly beneficial. The three week run to the border would have taken nearly four weeks without them. They had an incredible ability to feel the areas of subspace where the ship could move through more easily than others. Like finding the calm spots on a stormy sea.

Her attempts had failed though. Whatever the anomaly was it was making it impossible for the cetaceans to operate effectively. It was blanking out their natural abilities. Even with crewmen Bob and Alice doing their best all they were really managing to do was keep them calm. Without the Xindi they likely would have had to have sedated the dolphins.

"That'll put a serious crimp in our mobility," Captain Hayes said.

The ensign next to him was working quickly on her PADD. "I'm finding some references to similar issues with cetacean crewmen but not in the way of how to fix it."

Milana took a second to look the ensign over. She was short for a human woman, which meant she was tiny next to Milana's natural Cardassian stature. Her long curly red hair was something only a human could manage Milana reckoned. She was curvy for a human girl, certainly very attractive, and young, barely out of the academy if Milana could judge. Her uniform was the oddest part of her outfit. The short skirt style uniform had been discontinued from general use twenty years before and was supposedly still available for certain species or diplomatic functions. Technically there was no reason someone couldn't chose to wear it, but it was far less practical and Milana hadn't seen one in general use ever. The ensign had also given the replicator the wrong measurements as Milana was certain it was a good ten centimeters too short.

She was tempted to find out more about the girl, she hadn't seen her on board when they'd left spacedock but now she was glued to the captain's side. Still, the verbal ball was in the Captain's court and she wouldn't step out of line by grilling the ensign, she'd wait for later.

Captain Hayes looked over the girl's PADD, consulting whatever it had been she'd brought up. "That's the problem, their semi-sentient. They've got a mind of their own and can't really be fixed like a piece of equipment."

"Aye sir," Milana agreed.

"Any insights on what we can do to get them back in the game Lieutenant?"

"Nothing definite yet sir. I was going to consult with the doctor, see if he had any thoughts on something we can do. Maybe a relaxant, some kind of suppressant, something to take the edge off."

"Maybe a shot of Romulan ale," the ensign said.

"That might get them calm but I wouldn't trust their courses," Milana fired back.

"Ah, I'm sorry. Lieutenant Tuul, this is Ensign... Kaitlyn. My aide," the Captain said.

"Pleased to meet you ensign," Milana said diplomatically.

"Likewise Ma'am," Kaitlyn replied, offering her hand. Milana reached for it but watched as her hand passed right through the ensign's. Kaitlyn laughed at the look on Milana's face but stopped when the Cardassian glared at her. She offered her hand again but left it solid. "Sorry Ma'am."

"You're a hologram," Milana said flatly.

"Aye, Ma'am."

"Consult with the Doctor," the Captain said, ignoring his aide's antics. "You might also want to talk to Lieutenant Fealst’rak and Commander Del. They might have some insight on approaching this from the anomaly side rather than the biological."

"Aye sir," Milana said. She'd considered talking to the Commander but not the ship's science officer. She was hoping for a biological answer that might keep the cetacean's ability to navigate intact. She wasn't sure how to approach it from the other side of the coin without totally blanking off the dolphins from subspace, which would make them useless from a navigation standpoint.

"Carry on lieutenant. I'm sure you're ready to get out of that and into uniform."

"Aye sir, thank you sir."

"See you on the bridge," the captain said before heading off again.

Milana watched him go then turned and headed for her cabin. She was surprised to learn the ensign was just a hologram, then again that would explain the uniform. She remembered the note he'd left her on the PADD he'd given her with her service record unlocked on it. Her CO was a dirty old man. Of course, they had a holographic doctor, and she'd spent a couple hours last night playing cards with some of her crewmates in a bar full of holographic patrons. She shrugged, holographic crewmen were almost normal compared to some of her crewmates. She was not looking forward to talking to Lieutenant Fealst'rak.

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"One other thing sir."

Johan looked back at Cesina. Their meeting had gone well, having two people working on the ship's schedule was a great way to completely wreck it but thought they'd reached a mutual agreement that might avoid that. He'd dismissed her but she'd stuck around. "What is it?"

Cesina slid her PADD across the desk to him. On screen was the outline of a battle simulation. "Ya know, to be a real test you can't go giving the opposition the script." He started to page through the simulation, taking mental notes all the while.

"I know sir, but since you are in charge of training the fleet I thought it would be best to run this by you."

Johan nodded silently. "Not bad, but too easy."

"Sir?"

"There's no real complications Cesina. It's just show up, shoot, call it a day." He slid the PADD back to her. "Such things have their place, but when you're going to involve the whole bridge crew you need to try and stretch them, give everyone a work out. Make them think." Cesina pursed her mouth in a tiny frown as she considered this. For his part Johan was glad the old Andorian bowl cuts had gone out of style. Cesina kept her long silvery hair in a much more attractive ponytail and her bangs concealed the larger than normal, to a human, forehead her species had. She had that young, earnest, eager to please look all young officers seemed to have. He could remember when Terzi used to look like that, in fact Cesina reminded him a lot of the little Elaysian except tall, and blue.

"What could I do to complicate it sir? I don't want to get too ridiculous." She'd spent a long time trying to come up with something but it all seemed contrived or just stupid when she'd thought it up. She knew the pressure was getting to her because it wouldn't just be her commanding officer, or a few subordinates who witnessed this. The entire bridge crew would be taking part in the simulation. If she did an awful job every senior officer on the ship would witness it first hand.

"Oh certainly. Make it to complex and you reduce their workable options, sometimes even eliminate them. The trick is to add in something that makes the situation more difficult, but somewhat ambiguous."

"What would you recommend sir?" Cesina asked.

Johan smiled, "Well since you asked..."

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Terzi folded her hands on her desk as Crewman Leeds sat down across from her. "I'm sorry about having to put off our meeting, something came up."

"Of course ma'am," she said as she sat down.

Terzi had looked over Viwan Leed's record before she'd come to her office. The young Bajoran woman had a good solid record. Excellent marks in the academy, a heartfelt recommendation from her last CO on the Dallas, and unless she messed something up royally a promotion to petty officer third class would likely come sometime late this cruise or just after it. Overall a record to be proud of with few black marks aside from the usual foolishness crewmen were want to get into on shore leave. It had been why Terzi had selected her from the pool of candidates for the Typhoon's engineering crew. With any luck she'd play ball and keep her record looking good.

"I wanted to talk to you about what happened on the flight deck yesterday."

Leeds nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"Lieutenant O'Neal was out line, there's not question about that," Terzi sighed. "The question is what do we do about it?"

"Ma'am?" Leeds asked as she tilted her head. The long Bajoran earring she wore hung like a pendulum and Terzi wondered how she managed to never get it caught on something.

"The lieutenant will be punished, severely, but unofficially. Unless you object I think it would be best for everyone involved if this didn't go on the record."

Leeds scrunched her eyebrows together. "Are you saying I shouldn't file an official complaint?"

Terzi shook her head. "No, nothing of the sort. We have to consider the ramifications of a complaint however. Something like that on O'Neals record will be a blackmark that will ruin his career. And honestly though he was out of line, if the two of you had been off duty and out of uniform at a bar would he have been anything other than a pushy and annoying suitor?"

"With all due respect ma'am, I don't ever have to see a guy at a bar ever again. I'm stuck on this ship with the lieutenant."

Terzi nodded and pressed on. "Also, making this official isn't going to look good on your record." Leeds' eyes went wide. "What he did is against regs but everyone knows what making it official will do to his career. Most people won't think it's fair to phaser his career over this kind of thing. It might impact your career in Starfleet." Terzi hoped she wouldn't press the issue. She wasn't kidding that it would impact both their careers. It would certainly color her perceptions of the Bajoran if she had to make things official instead of letting them take care of it in house. "Don't worry. Lieutenant O'Neal is going to be punished for this, harshly."

Leeds sat there for a moment, staring at the floor. "I don't suppose I have a choice," she said.

"You do," Terzi replied. "This is up to you."

"I won't file a complaint," Leeds said finally.

Terzi gave her a faint smile and nodded. "Thank you, we'll take care of this."

"Aye Ma'am, permission to dismissed?" she said tersely.

"Dismissed," Terzi said. The Bajoran woman got up quickly and left her office.

When the door closed behind her Terzi rocked back in her chair and sighed. This kind of thing hadn't happened during the war. Most people were too physically exhausted to go hunting for a piece of tail. The few that were interested were usually desperate enough for physical affection and closeness that they weren't terribly picky. Hell, if the pilot had been so hard up he should have just taken care of it the next time his holodeck time came up. Terzi rubbed her thighs, they were hurting again and she didn't feel like dealing with it right now. In her desk drawer next to the pink bone and muscle mass stimulant was a blue green vial of pain killer. Popping the ampoule in she pressed it to her neck and sighed as the hypospray hissed and the medicine went to work immediately.

She could deal with mechanical problems. They were easy to fix. They had a cause. They had a solution. Once they were fixed they were fixed. It was the people who drove her insane. The higher up in the command structure she went the worse it got. When she was just an ensign the only thing she had to worry about was the mechanical problem at hand. Now it felt like she spent two thirds of her time dealing with the people at her command and their interpersonal problems instead of mechanical ones. If it just kept getting worse she didn't understand how Johan or the Captain could put up with it.

She leaned back in her chair and looked around her office at the many hard copy blueprints of various pieces of equipment on board that she had put up on the walls. Why couldn't people be as easy to deal with as machines?

Pulling up a schematic of the warp plasma collection/distribution headers she tried to get back to some real work.

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"I'm a doctor, not a vet!"

"I know that sir, but we don't have a vet on board and the cetaceans are semi-sentient," Milana said.

"Semi-sentient or not we still don't fully understand how the dolphins detect subspace fluctuations. I can't begin to treat them if I don't even fully understand what the problem is," the Doctor said in exasperation.

"Can you at least try sir?" Milana asked. "We need them to help us navigate. The captain approved of your trying to help them." That might have been stretching the truth just a little. The captain hadn't ordered the Doctor to help, but he also hadn't told her not to bother seeking the Doctor's help.

The Doctor sat his tricorder on a nearby biobed and pondered it. Even if they were only semi-sentient and a well known species from Earth he would still be doing research on a part of them that had eluded explanation by some of the best minds in the Federation for nearly two centuries. He folded his arms in front of him and reached up to stroke his chin. "I suppose I could have a look at them." When Milana's gray face lit up he held up a hand. "I promise nothing you understand. I'll look into it."

"Thank you sir," Milana said. "The captain also asked me to get the input of Lieutenant Fealst'rak and Commander Del."

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, someone more familiar with what's affecting them would be helpful. Have them contact me and we'll see what we can do."

"Aye sir," Milana said, quickly leaving the sickbay. The Doctor nodded, his thoughts already turning towards the medical journals he'd have to review, equipment he'd need, and testing procedures. Three seconds later he felt up to speed on it and only needed to hear from someone to get some background on the anomaly.

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Binni spotted Commander Deekan rising from his seat as she sat down at her console on the starboard aft quarter of the bridge. Inwardly she groaned. During the last staff meeting she'd caught him paying close attention to her and the way she'd done her best to stay away from Lieutenant Fealst'rak. Unfortunately aboard a brand new ship as well maintained as the Typhoon ensuring everything was ready for anything didn't take very long so she knew her hope that he'd have something else to talk about was in vain.

"Lt. Commander Ulin," he said in his gravelly monotone. He was pretty attractive but the dull voice and psychiatrist way he grilled her killed that. That and the fact that he was her direct superior.

"Commander Deekan."

"I noticed that you still seem uncomfortable around the Lieutenant," he commented as he stood in front of console. His stature making her look up to him slightly even though her station was on a raised platform.

"He made some comments when I ran into him on the way to the briefing yesterday," she explained lamely.

"And what sort of comments would these be that would cause such a reaction?"

Binni grimaced. "He commented that he'd never eat me because it would have no nutritional value."

"That's...possibly correct," he said. "As a non-humanoid species his amino acid and sugar handedness would at the least render you of no nutritional value and could render you poisonous."

"How does that make me feel better? That he doesn't eat me I'm poisonous? I'd like a better reason like 'Eating another sapient creature is abhorrent.'"

Her commander had to think about it for a moment, something that gave her a small feeling of victory. "Perhaps that should be a comfort. He has to treat you with a modicum of respect as you could be very dangerous to him."

"No thanks," Binni said.

"Are you going to make me order you to be in contact with the lieutenant more?"

"No sir," Binni replied.

"I am not unsympathetic to your situation Lieutenant Commander, however in Starfleet its a situation that cannot be allowed to stand."

"Aye sir," Binni replied. Deekan walked back to his station and Binni sighed. It was like being lectured by a rock grinder. She reached over and turned one of her displays over to the ship's library and called up information on the Rurutic homeworld. There had to be something interesting to talk to him about.

Deekan sat back down at his station and glanced over at his subordinate. He didn't want to seem to harsh on her but her fear of a fellow crewmate wasn't something he could tolerate. In his mind, and his culture's, fears had to be faced head on and conquered. She needed to deal with this and overcome it. It wouldn't do for her to fear the Lieutenant, one day he might have to rely on her or she on him. If that day came and she still felt as she did now how would they react. Deekan shook his head slowly, no, that wouldn't do.

As an officer Binni had impressed him. She knew her job and had presented some interesting solutions to things. From a technical standpoint she was a fine officer. Unfortunately as you rose in rank technical proficiency became less of a concern. Her continued fear of the Lieutenant could put a damper on her career. He'd certainly have difficulty recommending her for promotion as it stood now. How could she serve as chief tactical officer if she could one day find herself cowering in fear of one of her subordinates.

He sincerely hoped she'd solve this problem, and soon. So far he'd been able to handle things discreetly, off the record. He'd hate to see something happen that would force him to deal with it officially. Even hints of specism could put a crimp in an officer's career.

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Yumiko stood next to Seven of Nine at the former drone's station on the bridge. She appreciated how logical she could be but the Lt. Commander was hard headed once she got her teeth into an idea.

"I'm telling you, we can use the signal strength from the neighboring outpost to help chart some of the subspace fluctuations. The carrier signal modulates over a hundred thousand times a second."

Seven's graceful eyebrow arched skeptically. "It will only provide data over a very narrow arc across an area we have already traversed and it will require maintaining and open comm-link to the stations."

"Yes," Yumiko said as she tried to keep her voice in check. It wouldn't do to start yelling at a superior officer. "However it will provide detailed information for the science department to examine."

"Possibly," Seven replied, giving ground for the first time in the conversation.

Yumiko pressed her advantage. "Every bit of information we can get them will be important. It might not help us immediately but it could help us understand the anomaly in the long term. Help us develop some kind of filter to get some of our sensor resolution and range back."

Seven slowly nodded. "Very well coordinate this with the outposts. I will make the necessary adjustments so that the sensors record the carrier signal fluctuations and forward it to the science department."

Yumiko grinned as her suggestion finally won out. She kept her feelings mostly in check but her neck tendrils writhed rapidly in joy. "Thank you ma'am."

Seven nodded and Yumiko headed back for her station port side.

"Win yourself a victory over the Borg?" Commander Kim asked as she passed.

"Yes sir!" Yumiko replied, pausing at his station.

Harry twisted his seat about to face Yumiko directly. Having a place to sit down was a welcome change from his station on Voyager. He didn't know what sadist had designed a station that required the person manning it to stand for their entire duty shift but he bet they'd never had to man it themselves. The restraints built into it were nice to. He didn't know how he still had had all his teeth with the way he'd been knocked around on Voyager. "Don't let Seven get to you, if you think she's tough now you should have seen her right after we'd freed her from the collective."

"You mean the stick up her bum was even bigger?"

Harry had to restrain his laughter. Not only at how true her observation was, but at the way Yumiko turned beet red when she realized she'd just insulted a superior officer. "Yeah, it was. But don't tell her I said so. The Voyager crew put in a lot of long hours shrinking it."

"Yes sir, sorry sir," Yumiko said before hustling back to her station.

"Ssssuch insssubordination. Yhou deed not punissssh the lieutenant for eet," Riway said from the next station over.

Harry nodded. "She knows what she did. What was I going to do, give her demerits for it?"

"Vhou could have ssssaid ssssometeng."

"Complaints about other people's insubordination coming from you? Will wonders never cease?"

It was Riway's turn to blush, though her skin turned a pale green which made her crimson scales stand out against it. "I vassss noht trying to geet zee lieutenat in troouble. I vass jussst..."

Harry held up his hand. "It's ok, I get it. I'll crack the whip a little harder in the future."

Riway grinned, showing her elongated canines and eyeteeth again. "Sssooome people dhou noht mind zee vip zough Commander."

It was Harry's turn to blush and find something very interesting to look at on his console

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"This way Ms. Mavil," the Andorian officer said as she led Bella through the open doors of a holo deck. The captain had informed her that Lieutenant Commander Bul'ra would be her guide for the exercise so she'd followed where she'd led. She was surprised to find the holodeck empty.

"Where is everyone?" she asked.

"Still on the bridge," Cesina replied. "We're just here to observe."

"Then where are they running the simulation from?"

"The bridge. The holoemitters have the ability to make it seem as real there as it would be on the holodeck. This just lets them stay at their posts and seamlessly transition into the simulation."

"So who's running the ship," Bella asked.

"During cruising like this there's not much to really do. Commander Luhrner is monitoring the ship's situation while the rest of the bridge crew participates in the exercise."

"And you came up with this exercise?" Bella asked, settling back into her normal form.

"I did," Cesina replied. "Computer, activate bridge simulation observation program."

Bella watched as the floor and walls around her dissolved into the vacuum of space. Five meters in front of her and to the right and hovering with its equator just aabove the plane they were standing on was a small blue planet that looked to be thirty or so meters in diameter. Off in the distance behind it she could see the gas giant it was orbiting a few hundred meters away dominating the sky in that direction. The planet had a one moon hanging far above their heads, a simple bit of blasted rock. Orbiting the planet not to far from them was a single long boxy ship trailing plasma and looking quite damaged. To their left Bella could see the bridge of the Typhoon in small scale below them. It was as if someone had pulled off the ceiling and replaced it with a piece of transparisteel that they were now standing on. "Impressive. When does it start?"

Cesina waved her hand and a display appeared in the air beside her. She reached up and tapped a line of code on it. "Right now."

Below them Yumiko sat up straighter at her comm station. "Sir, I'm receiving a distress call. A freighter in orbit of Birjand two C. They report they are heavily damaged, unknown attackers. They've lost primary and secondary power and are running on back ups. Their orbit is decaying.... that's it sir, the transmission cut off."

Timothy nodded. "Conn, alter course to Birjand two C, maximum warp. ETA?"

"One minute sir," Milana replied.

"Well I suppose its good we're in the area," Timothy said.

"That seems awfully quick," Bella commented, looking up from the bridge.

Cesina shrugged. "The trip to the system doesn't actually do much for them. Better to move them forward to the scenario right away."

A few meters away the tiny form of the Typhoon decelerated from warp drive and swooped through space towards the freighter. The graceful ship passed by them treating Bella to a close look at it. As the Typhoon neared the planet the perspective changed, and without moving Bella, Cesina, and the bridge rushed towards the planet. "Whoa," Bella gulped as the sudden movement made her stomach lurch.

"Oh, sorry about that," Cesina said. "Wanted to give us a better perspective."

"Scanning," Seven of Nine said. "The freighter has suffered heavy damage to its engineering section. I'm detecting no warp or impulse power, no shields, minimal life support. Over seven thousand life signs. I'm detecting disruptor signatures from the damage sir."

"Launch fighters and raise shields," Timothy barked.

"A colony ship," Johan said.

Timothy nodded, "Hail them and match orbits."

"No response," Yumiko reported.

"They've suffered damage to their command section as well, it could be affecting their communications," Seven added.

"Their course is degrading Captain Timothy Hayes," Villec said. He was busy comparing the other ship's course to their own. "They will enter the planets atmosphere in approximately three minutes."

"Confirmed captain," Seven said. "Their structural integrity field and inertial dampers are not operating well enough to let the ship survive."

"Mr. Kim, get a tractor beam on it and work with Mr. Bisaan to get her into a better orbit.," Timothy commanded. "How long will their life support hold out?"

Seven consulted her readouts. "They are operating on battery power captain. I would estimate another five to ten minutes at most."

"We might want to start beaming people off," Johan said. "Buy us some time by reducing the load on their life support."

"Agreed," Timothy said, "and keep scanning. I doubt whoever did this has gone anywhere.

"Ready for tractor beam," Villec said.

"We need to drop the ventral shields to establish the tractor and start beaming," Harry said.

Timothy nodded. "Do it."

"Dropping ventral shields," Binni said from her station at the rear port side of the bridge.

From their vantage point Bella watched as the Typhoon slid into position above the damaged freighter. A pale blue beam connected the two and the battlecruiser’s impulse engines flared up softly as the two started to move together. "That freighter is huge," Bella said. The ship's fighters, looking like gnats, took up positions above the Typhoon both forward and aft.

Cesina smiled, "It's an Oregon class colony ship. Designed to haul up to ten thousand colonists and enough gear to get them started all in one shot. It actually masses almost twice what the Typhoon does."

"Tractor established," Harry said. "Transports starting. We're going to be pulling over about five hundred per minute."

"That'll be cutting it close," Johan said.

"We should buy some time by reducing the load on the environmental systems." Timothy said. "I hope."

"Adjusting orbit," Villec said. "Full thrusters."

"Captain!" Seven yelped. "Romulan warbirds decloaking bearing one ninety five mark twenty five, range two hundred thousand kilometers."

"On screen. Hail them," Timothy said, "and get that freighter into a better orbit now, we may have to cut them loose."

"Detecting five D'deridexes and three Norexans," Seven said. "They're moving towards us. Their shields are up and weapons charging."

"Can you say trap," Johan quipped.

"They've locked weapons," Binni confirmed.

Bella looked closely at the position of the Typhoon and the warbirds. For the moment the Typhoon's dorsal shields would take the brunt of the assault but that wouldn't last.

"They're moving to get a shot at us from below," Timothy said. His hands balled into fists and Bella could just make out him squeezing and relaxing them, the only obvious sign of the adrenaline in his body. "Status of the transport and tow?"

"We've got a little over eight hundred colonists," Harry said.

"Stable orbit still not achieved," Villec reported.

"This is gonna suck," Johan moaned.

"Why aren't they firing?" Bella asked as the Romulans closed on the Typhoon.

"Which ones?"

"Either of them."

Cesina's antennae bent low and twitched as she smiled. "According to the simulation there are no current hostilities between the Federation and the Romulans. Even in the FDF we still can't fire until fired upon. As for the Romulans, well they know we can't fire until fired upon. They won't waste a chance at a vulnerable side."

Timothy nervously watched the main viewer. On it he could see a visible light image of the ships moving through space and beside it hung the planetary maneuvering display showing the relative positions of the ships and planet. The Typhoon's fighters had moved towards the Romulans but were keeping their distance. It was only a matter of seconds until the Romulans got a clear shot at the Typhoon's exposed belly.

"Eleven hundred," Harry said.

"Still not enough," Timothy said quietly. "We move off now and the ship re-enters before we can get the rest of them."

The Romulan's line of sight cleared the dorsal shields and Timothy braced himself.

"Why are they so small?" Bella asked.

"The ships?" Cesina asked.

"Yeah."

"That's how big they really are," Cesina said. "The images you usually see are modified. At the speeds and ranges starships can fight at all you'd see otherwise would be tiny dots zipping around firing at one another. In order to make it easier to see what's going on most recordings greatly increase the size of the ships involved so that its easier to follow what’s happening. I can enlarge them for you if you want."

"No, that's ok," Bella said. If what she had seen had been altered she wanted to see what it really looked like.

The warbirds were nearing the planet, getting close enough that the curve of it threatened to break line of sight with the Typhoon. At the last moment all five emerald ships fired. Sickly green pulses of disruptor fire blended with the pale orange glow of torpedoes to form a seething swarm of energy coming up towards the Typhoon from low and behind.

"Return fire!" Timothy barked.

Numerous phaser banks along the aft of the hull lit up and spat streams of phaser bolts towards the attacking ships but the Romulans had anticipated it. They swung down into the atmosphere, letting parts of it take the brunt of the attack. Dissipated by cutting through the atmosphere the phasers only rocked the Romulans but did nothing to slow them down. They pressed the attack only minorly disturbed. The volley of torpedoes from the Typhoon's aft engineering hull passed the Romulan torpedoes and had better luck. Plunging into the atmosphere the torpedoes detonated as soon as they got close. One D'deridex pushed its luck too far, driving hard and pulling ahead of the others it ran head first into two tubes worth of torpedoes. Explosions blossomed across its shield surrounding the ship in yellow light. For an instant it looked as if they'd hold out but that didn't, collapsing and letting the destructive energies hit the ship. One nacelle ruptured two torpedoes detonated in it.

They Typhoon wasn't lucky. Its point defense turrets reacted as quickly as they could, knocking down a score of torpedoes but the volley was too heavy to stop them all. With shields down and slowly tractoring the wounded freighter there was nothing it could do but watch as the Romulan disruptors and torpedoes slammed into its fantail. Sheets of armor disintegrated as they were designed to do as the hellish energies ripped into it, sacrificing itself to save the ship.

"I didn't think he'd take a shot like that to the armor," Cesina said. "I thought he'd drop the tow and raise shields."

"Heavy damage to the aft ventral section, minor armor breaches," Binni reported. "Another volley will go internal!" On the main viewer a stray disruptor bolt clipped the freighter and tore a ragged gash along its side.

"Mr. Bisaan, put us between the freighter and the Romulans and keep us there. Mr. Kim cut the tractor but continue beaming survivors off, that'll have to be enough of a pull. Drop aft shields once we're in position. Mr. Danor get those fighters moving and Harry anyone who tries to get around us.

Bella winced as the Typhoon took fire, the big ship shuddering under the impacts. Beside her Cesina had called up a small model of the ship that clearly showed the damage the battlecruiser had taken. The next volley of Romulan fire wasn't as coordinated as the first, a victim of their spreading formation. The Federation ship had rolled enough to take the next round across its shields and while they shimmered they held. The Romulan ships fanned out, the D'deridexes drifting across the front of the Typhoon while the Norexans swooped up high on the port side. The big battle cruiser started to pivot, trying to keep them both as in front of it as it could while the fighters started to swarm one of the Norexans.

Timothy watched the maneuvering of the Romulans, not sure if he should be disappointed in Lt. Commander Bul'ra or in the computer. Either way their maneuvering was subpar. It was at that moment he realized he was to content to think of it as a simulation put together by a junior officer.

"Shields!" He demanded.

"Two Norexans decloaking directly aft, five thousand kilometers," Seven said at that same time.

Timothy gritted his teeth. He wouldn't allow himself that conceit again. The Andorian's stock was going up in his eyes.

"Gotcha," Cesina said as the two warbirds decloaked directly aft of the Typhoon. Both fired the instant their cloaks dropped. Disruptors spat streams of fire into the unprotected aft of the ship as their torpedoes came in after them. At the last second the angry orange dipped low and slammed up into the already damaged belly of the Typhoon.

"That went internal," Binni replied. "We've got hull breaches on decks twenty six to thirty one."

"How many colonists," Timothy asked.

Harry glanced up, "Two thousand."

"I hope it's enough," Johan said.

"Return fire, focus on the D'deridexes."

"That seemed rather mean spirited," Bella observed.

The Andorian woman shrugged. "Maybe, but it worked. This whole exercise is really meant to try and catch them off guard like that."

"They're having to fight with one foot nailed to the floor with that disabled freighter."

Cesina nodded, "That's the idea. With freedom to maneuver it would be rather easy for the Typhoon to keep moving and deny them the chance to pick their shots. Having to stay there and defend the transport prevents that."

"Still, is taking away one of their abilities really fair?"

"No, but neither is combat, and you have to learn to fight in less than ideal conditions. Besides, what better way to impress the captain than to blow his ship out from under him?

In the distance Bella watched as the fighters harassed one of the Norexans until it peeled away from its companion. The second ship curled out and around, maneuvering to try and bring its heavy guns to bear on the gnats pestering its companion. Most of the fighters seemed to do fine but at least two were immediately destroyed when they were caught by a disruptor beam. They were avenged quickly as the Typhoon's phasers battered down two of the D'deridex's shields and a flurry of torpedoes destroyed them both. The final D'deridex quickly swept down, trying to evenly space itself equally around the Typhoon.

All five Romulan ships pounded away at the Typhoon but her shields held in a shimmering curtain of azure light. In return sheets of rapid fire phaser bolts connected the Typhoon to the other ships. The smaller Romulan ships didn't fare as well as the Typhoon did, the silver bubble of their shields rippling as massive amounts of energy were dumped into them. The Federation battlecruiser did an admiral job of placing itself between the Romulans and the colony ship but spread out as they were it couldn't shield the other ship all the time. Stray disruptor shots pelted the freighter from time to time, eating away at its unprotected structure.

Beside her Cesina grimaced as she watched.

"What's the matter?" Bella asked.

"I had them split apart to try and keep the freighter threatened and the Typhoon nailed down but all its doing is letting the Typhoon engage them all at the same time and destroy them. I should have concentrated the forces." Cesina's antenna drooped as she watched the Typhoon's pulsing phasers chew away at its attackers. "I might have been able to batter down the shields if they'd stayed together."

"Well, looks like the bridge crew won't be the only ones learning something today," Bella quipped.

A Norexan disintegrated as a burst of phaser fire sheared its port wing from the ship sending it into a spin towards the planet below. The final D'deridex shuddered as a spread of torpedoes broke it's back, its upper and lower halves collapsing towards one another.

Cesina consulted her displays, looking over read outs for the final trio of Romulan ship. "That's the game," the said morosely.

"Captain," Seven said. "The remaining Romulan ships are withdrawing."

All three remaining Norexans wheeled about and surged away from the planet, but one not quite fast enough. A final burst of phaser fire ripped into it's aft quarter and found it's warp reactor. As the other two ships distorted and went to warp their sister ship disappeared in an anti-matter fueled fireball.

The Captain stood and up and took a step towards the main viewer. "Resume transporting colonists off the freighter. What is the ship's status."

"The freighter took damage during the exchange. All batteries and emergency power are down, life support has failed. Grav decking, inertial dampers, temperature control, and atmospheric recyclers are off line. Internal temperatures have already risen three degrees and carbon dioxide concentrations are up twenty percent," Seven reported.

"It's going fast," Johan said. "Keep an eye out for those Norexans, they may decide to circle back."

"Keep beaming them off Mr. Kim," Timothy said as he watched the view screen intently. "Ms. Saral, is there anything we can do to try and help the other ship get life support operational?"

The Vulcan woman pushed a lock of wavy black hair out of her face. A strand had fallen out of the ponytail she kept in in behind her and that stray hair messed up a lot of the traditional Vulcan image. "It may be possible to effect a power transfer captain, but I do know for certain. The freighter's engineering spaces have taken significant damage."

"Try it," Timothy ordered.

"Are you going to have them get attacked again?" Bella asked.

Cesina shook her head making her snow white hair sashay. "No, no real point in it. A pair of Norexans can't hope to take out the Typhoon. They'd only die pointlessly." She waited a few more minutes and consulted her read outs. "They only lost eight hundred and five colonists."

"Eight hundred and five?" Bella asked asked incredulously.

Cesina's antennae nodded. "In most of my simulations anywhere from two to three thousand colonists died. I think the computer was more cautious about protecting the Typhoon than the captain was. Lt. Commander Bul'ra to the Captain."

Below them Bella watched the Captain incline his head as Cesina's voice filled is bridge. "Go ahead."

"Captain, the simulation is concluded, we can resume normal cruise operations."

"Thank you commander, and good work."

Timothy started to give orders as Cesina said, "Computer, save and end program." Bella had another moment of disorientation as her god's eye view of the proceedings shrunk down to a single room. "Well, how was it?"

Bella considered her words. "It was informative," was all she said.

"The captain will be expecting us," she said with a wave towards the door. "After you."

============================================================

"Captain, something is happening with the anomaly," Seven reported.

"What's that Commander?"

"Unknown sir," she replied.

Timothy watched as she transferred the readings to the display next to his chair. The rising and falling bars on the graph were pulsing quickly and gaining in speed and amplitude. He called up the readings of the disturbance from the hours before and they were much calmer. "I need to know what's going on Sensors."

"The fluctuations in the subspace field are growing rapidly captain. I do not know why."

On the starboard side of the bridge Cesina and Bella walked out of the turbolift.

"Ms. Bul'ra, is this your doing?"

"The simulation's over sir," she replied as she hurried to one of the gunner's stations, shooing the crewman aside and calling up the display the captain was looking at. No sooner had her eyes taken a solid look at the graph when suddenly it spiked, filling the screen with red. A half second later she was thrown forward into the railing along with everyone else on the bridge as the ship suddenly, massively, decelerated.

"Crash stop!" Saral yelled from the engineering station at the back of the bridge.

"Report!" Timothy snapped as he picked himself up off the deck. At the rear of the bridge Terzi was sitting next to her Vulcan first officer working feverishly at their console. Neither woman seemed to hear him or look up from what they were doing. "I said report Ms. Del."

"We lost sensor resolution on the deflector dish as well as collimation of the tractor beam," Terzi snapped. "We were flying blind and defenseless."

"Confirmed Captain," Seven said from her position. "The intensity of the anomaly increased. Average distortion is now three point four six millichochranes."

"We lost sensor range and the deflector's range is severely reduced," Terzi explained. "It can't be sure to sweep our path of debris in time."

"So?" Bella asked from beside the gunner's stations where she was pulling herself back up along with Cesina.

The shock of the stop and then Bella's question threw Terzi off base. "So?," she snapped. "So you can't fly at warp speed without a functioning deflector. Twenty three sixteen, the USS Mont Blanc, they had multiple failures in their deflectors and the safeties didn't catch them until seventeen seconds later. A third of the crew was dead and the rest were injured. What was left of the Mont Blanc was towed back to space dock and scrapped. When you run into things at a hundred times the speed of light it's a bad thing."

"How bad is it?" Johan asked, getting Terzi and everyone else back on task.

"Sensor range has been greatly reduced," Seven replied. "Approximately three light years maximum range."

"I've lost communications with Deep Space Three and all outposts," Yumiko said.

"Terzi," Johan prodded. Both her and Saral were crouched over their console, discussing something.

"Gimme a second," Terzi said under her breath.

Saral's eyebrow perked. "We need a few moments to analyze the situation," she said trying to cover for her superior officer. "Lieutenant Tuul, please join us."

As the Cardassian woman walked past Johan eyed her over. For a Cardassian woman she was actually pretty attractive, if you could get past the fact that she was room temperature and gray. Tall and skinny she was his general type and her neck ridges were almost small enough to forget about. He'd never thought he'd actually see a Cardassian serving in Starfleet and his initial reaction to her had been much the same as his Captain's. She did make nice eye candy for the bridge though. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind and focused. He'd have to make it a point to talk to Terzi about bridge protocol later, he didn't care if she spoke to him that way and Timothy wouldn't either, but it wasn't the Atlas and it wasn't the war. The last thing they'd need is her seeming insubordinate with the Senator on the bridge. Bad enough Bella had. He didn't see a holocamera on her but that didn't mean much.

At the back of the bridge on the port side the three women had a hurried and hushed conversation. "When ever you three are ready," Timothy said drolly.

Terzi's head never came up as she worked feverishly, leaving the explanations to her chief. "Sir," Saral began, "based off the distortion to subspace we are seeing our velocity will have to be reduced to accommodate for the reduced effectiveness of the deflector."

"How much," he replied.

"Warp seven," she said without a twitch.

Johan whistled, "That's a big knock to our top speed. Good thing we're almost to the Neutral Zone."

"Sir, there's more," Milana said. "With this kind of field distortion we're not going to have much fine maneuvering ability. If we have to start maneuvering at warp speeds it'll get bumpy."

Timothy nodded. "Understood, get us underway again Ms. Tuul, warp seven." As Milana went back to her station he looked back towards the engineering console. "And Ms. Saral, a little warning next time?"

"Yes sir," the Vulcan said without cracking a smile.

Terzi walked down to the command level when Timothy beckoned her. "Any chance of a work around?" he asked as Milana took the ship back to warp.

Terzi shook her head. "No sir, not with this kind of distortion. Maybe if it was consistent but not random like this."

From on the upper platform Bella asked, "Can't you modulate it or something? Flip the polarity?"

Terzi looked at her incredulously. "The polarity of WHAT? Modulate something? It's a deflector dish not a magic wand!"

"She's not an engineer," Timothy said. "Lay off."

"I'll work with Lt. Fealst'rak to see if there's any usable pattern to the distortions but I'm not holding out much hope."

"Understood," Timothy replied. "Do what you can."

"Captain," Yumiko said from her station. "I've tried to reestablish contact with DS Three or the border outposts but no luck yet sir. I am picking up a subspace relay approximately two light years away but that's it sir."

"Two light years?" Senator T'prin said. "That effectively cuts us off from communication with the Federation at large."

"Mr. Kim, start spinning up message torpedoes, we may have to do this the old fashioned way," Johan said. Timothy let his first officer do his job; it gave him a chance to think. It was short lived though as Johan leaned closer to him, "So does this feel like an invasion just yet? Our sensors are so limited we couldn't see a warbird if jumped into our laps and kissed us and a tin can and a string would be a more reliable communications device. If they decided to come across the Neutral Zone no one would know until half the planets in this sector had already fallen."

"This anomaly is surely causing them as many problems as it is us," the senator said calmly. "However even I must cede to the logic of preparing for the worst in this instance."

"Time to the observation point on the Neutral Zone?" Timothy asked.

"One hour, seven minutes sir," Milana replied.

"We have to modify the deployment of the Task Force on the border," Timothy said, calling up a star map and the fleet's deployment on his screen. Johan leaned closer as well and they began to discuss the best way to deploy the Task Force's assets.

============================================================

Timothy sat in his command chair watching space rush by as the Typhoon's massive engines violated every law Einstein had ever dreamed of in order to push the ship closer to the Neutral Zone. Only now the immaterium was fighting back. Alpha shift was over and Beta should have taken over bridge operations but due to their arrival at the Neutral Zone Timothy had held them over. Unless something very odd happened they'd arrive, find nothing, and hand things off to Beta shift to begin a long and detailed series of scans. In the mean time the extra bridge stations usually left empty were filled with Beta shift cramming in to keep up to speed on what was happening and lend a help hand, claw, or tentacle as individual case may be.

At least he hoped they'd find nothing. He very much wanted to be completely wrong right now and maybe run into a Romulan ship wanting to know what the hell was going on as well. He and Johan had crafted a redeployment of the task force, moving his smaller ships up closer to the border to act as pickets in the newly created sensor blind spots while his heavy ships held farther back, ready to intercept any aggressors. It was simple and by the book, which made Timothy loathe it. With the total lack of information they had however there was nothing he could do about it.

Timothy passed the time as he often did in these situations, focusing on the view. Which on this ship was rather impressive. He need something to occupy his mind, any triviality just to keep his mind calm and loose rather than spinning itself into knots over things he could do nothing to control. "You'd almost expect it to look different," he said absentmindedly.

Johan ignored his captain's off hand comment. He was used to them and knew that some junior officer would rise to the challenge. To his surprise it was Senator T'prin who did. "How so captain?"

Timothy glanced to his left. "This close to the Neutral Zone and the Romulan Empire you'd expect it to look different."

"Green?" Johan quipped.

T'prin was unfazed. "The lines sentient creatures drawn on maps have no influence on the appearance of space. Once area will look much the same as the next."

"I disagree senator, unexplored space has an appearance all its own," Timothy said.

"That is again a single sentient's point of view. Something the universe cares little for," the senator chastised.

Timothy's rebuttal was cut short. "Sir, I'm detecting a small craft in the neutral zone, only a few light minutes from the Federation side." Seven called from her position on the right side of the bridge. "Romulan. Approximately five hundred tons. It appears to be a long range shuttle."

"Status," he called out.

"They're at full power, no signs of distress. Shields are down and weapons on standby."

"Why didn't we spot it earlier?" Timothy asked.

"I believe it was cloaked sir, our sensors haven't degraded that much," was Seven's clipped reply.

"Sir, we're receiving a hail," Yumiko reported.

"A Romulan shuttle just happens to be waiting for us in the Neutral Zone and wants to talk?" Johan said.

"And to think you complained about holding the shift over," Timothy replied. "On screen," he barked.

============================================================

The spymaster watched as the fat old bastard the conclave thought they'd chosen as their leader stood when the communications officer announced their hail had been accepted. He'd been very careful about who he'd chosen for this, his plans had fallen apart the last time when his superior had turned out to be less amiable to his manipulations than he'd planned. So far this one had done as he'd been told, and if he decided to step out of line the spymaster had a file five centimeters thick full of dirty secrets the old man would never want to have see the light of day.

When the viewer came on he was taken aback by the size of the bridge he saw. From the camera angle over a dozen crewman were seen at their stations with room for at least as many more. It was also different from the usual Federation colors, less warm and with more bare metal. In some ways it reflected the culture that had birthed it. The Dominion War had taken some of the luster off the Federation.

The man who arose from the central command chair was a textbook human by his judgment. Average humanoid height, weight, and build, male, with blonde hair. He snorted. If he'd chosen an appearance to help disappear in the Federation he couldn't have chosen a better one to emulate. The man tugged the bottom of his uniform jacket and stood with his feet shoulder width apart and his hands clasped behind his back.

"This is fleet captain Timothy Hayes of the Federation Defense Force battlecruiser USS Typhoon. May I ask what brings you to the Neutral Zone?"

The spymaster brought up the results of the shuttle's scans of the battleship before them. Refitted by the Talshi'ar the shuttles sensors were top of the line and subtle enough that they likely escaped detection by the Federation ship. The readout would have been enough to make his blood run cold back in his academy days. The ship was everything they had feared the Federation might one day decide to build. The Empire had been able to compete with the Federation when they'd just built exploration ships with enough firepower to defend themselves, but something like this monster would throw that out of balance. The Klingons had faced a similar situation at the time of the Praxis disaster. They would either have to massively expand their fleet to allow their lower tech designs to continue to compete with the Federation or sue for peace. When Praxis exploded and its clean up and rebuilding consumed all the resources the Klingons could have used to expand the fleet they'd done something remarkably out of character. They'd sued for peace and normalized relations. The spymaster absently wondered if Shinzon's rebellion might be enough to push the Empire into the same situation. Expand to stay competitive and bankrupt the Empire, or accept that they'd lost and seek peace. He was thankful such a decision would never be his.

"My name is Governor Taliren," the portly Romulan said. "I represent the worlds, Jaisalmer, Sarab, and Yecheng." He paused to take a deep breath and the spymaster sighed. The theatrics were annoying, they were long past the point of no return. "We have seceded from the Romulan Star Empire and would like to petition the Federation for protectorate status. Perhaps we could come aboard to discuss this?"

To the human's credit the only outward sign of surprise he gave was the widening of his eyes. "Yes, I think you should," he replied. "We'll arrive at your location in," he leaned over the console of a Cardassian woman in front of him. The spymaster made a mental note to inquire about that. "...forty five minutes. You can land in our shuttle bay or transport over."

"We'll land if its all the same to you captain."

"Very well Governor," Captain Hayes replied. "We'll arrive as soon as we can."

"I look forward to it."

"Until then," the blonde human said.

"Until then," Taliren said and the screen returned to displaying the starfield. "There we go Cossick, that wasn't so hard was it?" he said as he returned to the command chair.

"Getting the Federation to talk to you is one thing, getting them to listen and do what you want is another," the spymaster cautioned.

============================================================

"Command staff. Conference room. Now." Timothy barked.

"So much for just burning holes in subspace," Johan said as he rose.

"Son. Of. A. Bitch," Timothy said under his breath. "It just can't be simple can it?"

============================================================

Dramatis Personae

Crew, U.S.S. Typhoon NCC-79853

Timothy Hayes, Fleet Captain, Commander 1st Task Force of the 17th Fleet, Male Human
Commanded the U.S.S. Atlas during the Dominion War, transferred into the Federation Defense Force immediately after its establishment, given command of the Typhoon and the 1st TF soon after.

Johan Luhrner, Commander, Male Human
1st Officer of the Atlas during the Dominion War, 1st officer of the Typhoon

Cesina Bul’ra, Lt. Commander, Female Andorian
Lieutenant aboard the U.S.S Galaxy, 2nd Officer of the Typhoon

Terzi Del, Commander, Female Elaysian
Chief Engineer of the Atlas during the Dominion War, Chief Engineer of the Typhoon

Deekan Braal, Commander, Male Capellan
Security Officer then Tactical Officer of the Atlas during the Dominion War, Chief Tactical Officer of the Typhoon

Peili, Lt. Commander, Female Orion
Lieutenant in charge of the defense of a border station during the Dominion War, Chief Security Officer of the Typhoon

Harry Kim, Commander, Male Human
Operations Officer of the U.S.S. Voyager, Operations Officer of the Typhoon

EMH (Joe), Commander, Hologram
Chief Medical Officer of the Voyager, Chief Medical Officer of the Typhoon

7 of 9, Lt. Commander, Human/Borg Female
Served on U.S.S. Voyager, Chief Sensors Officer of the Typhoon

Riway daughter of Jaheel, Lt. Commander, Female Si’rak
Ensign on the Atlas, 1st Operations Officer of the Typhoon

Binni Ulin, Lt. Commander, Female Human
Lieutenant on the U.S.S. Lelander, Defense Officer of the Typhoon

Villec Bisaan, Lieutenant, Male Nileen
Starfleet Academy Cadet, Helmsman of the Typhoon

Milana Tuul, Lieutenant, Cardassian Female
Starfleet Academy Cadet, Navigator of the Typhoon

Saral, Lt. Commander, Female Vulcan
Asst. Chief Engineer of the Typhoon

Fealst’rak, Lieutenant, Rurutic Male
Headed a research project using a space telescope to study the galactic core, Chief Science Officer of the Typhoon

Marcos Hernandez, Lieutenant, Male Human
Combat shuttle pilot during the Dominion war, Alpha Squadron leader of the Typhoon

Rilo Gulia, Lieutenant, Male un-Joined Trill
Combat shuttle pilot during the Dominion war, Beta Squadron leader of the Typhoon

Tycho Danor, Lt. Commander, Yvethan Male
Airgroup leader of Akira class U.S.S. Jonestown during the Dominion War, Airgroup commander of the Typhoon

Yumiko Boritsolav, Lieutenant, Female Human/Gor'sic
Graduated from Starfleet academy, familiarization deployment on the U.S.S. Carthage, communications officer of the Typhoon

Others

T’prin, Senator, Vulcan Female
Federation senator and chief opponent of the FDF

Solin, Aide, Vulcan Male
Senator T’prin’s personal assistant

Bella Mavil, Reporter, Human Female
United News reporter on assignment aboard the Typhoon

Romulans

Taliren, Governor, Romulan Male
Governor of the Triumvarite of Jaisalmer, Sarab, and Yecheng

Cossick, Romulan Male
Chief of Intelligence for the Triumvarite

===========================================

Author’s Notes

1) ...and Romulan plots OH MY!
2) So honestly, how badly am I preaching in this damn fic? Do I not shut up about how I think some things in Trek are wrong and I try to fix them? Is this pure Author Tract/Appeal from start to finish? Let me know. Even if you just like when I run my mouth let me know. I'm kinda curious.
3) The cetacean lab is something we never got to see during TNG. It's part of TNG tech manual and on the Ent-D blueprints there is a clearly labeled cetacean lab. I ran with it and added it to the Monsoon class as well.
4) The handedness of proteins and sugars is a consideration in life. Trek sort of side steps the issue with the whole "Founder" crap that implies all humanoid life in the Galaxy, or at least the Trek corner of the galaxy, are all descended from a single progenitor race and therefore everyone gets along nicely, able to eat the same things, make babies, etc. with no real problems.

===========================================

"That is again a single sentient's point of view. Something the universe cares little for," the senator chastised.

Johan coughed, "If captain Quixote is quite done tilting at windmills..."