Claire O'Malley stepped out of her new quarters. She was excited to be on a new post. She had been on many posts recently, but nothing permanent and she was beginning to become discouraged.
[Captain Mallory to Lt. O'Malley] The captain's voice came over the intercom very clear, almost to wake up the Lieutenant.
[O'Malley here]
[It seems you're going to get to show off your skills sooner than we thought. A Romulan ambassador is boarding the station now, to discuss the unrightful detention of Romulan diplomats.] The Captain spoke as if she had enough of excuses from the Romulans. She had heard them all by now.
[I'm on my way] Claire was definitely surprised. The Romulans were only captured a week before. The star empire must not have wasted any time once they became aware of the situation.
Claire stepped onto the turbolift and made her way to the conference room.
K'Tag awoke and began his normal routine. He planned to take some time off today. Ever since his last assignment, he felt like he was on a permanent high. Not only did he fulfill his mission, he succeeded in bringing home prisoners of war.
<0800 hours> The computer hummed through out the base.
[This is Ensign Razek, Lieutenant it is now alpha shift, and I was wondering if you planned on relieving me. It has been kind of a rough night, now that we have Romulans on the station.]
[I am on my way. I have seemed to lost track of time again.] K'Tag stepped onto the corridor and made his way to the command deck. He was working only half of alpha shift, so he could take some time to exercise, and get ready for his dinner with Lt. O'Malley. They had begun dating during the past week, and K'Tag had a wonderful time on both previous dates. Time had seemed to be passing much more slowly than it had while aboard the bird of prey. K'Tag had earned the respect of many of the crew he served among. He had not heard so many compliments. K'Tag had completely passed the time. He was already to the command deck.
"Good morning Lieutenant." Captain Mallory's voice wasn't harsh. She had finally accepted K'Tag's lack of punctuality.
"I guess we could agree on the morning part." K'Tag missed the Klingon cruiser. No one questioned him when he was late there. Alpha shift passed quite quickly. All shift long the Romulans moved back and forth between the base and their ship. K'Tag hoped Lt. O'Malley wouldn't get too distracted with all of the negotiations and completely forget about their dinner date.
Finally Alpha shift was over, and K'Tag was done working for the day.
[Lt. O'Malley to Lt. K'Tag, I'm going to have to move our date to lunch if that is acceptable.]
[Oh of course, I'll meet you in twenty minutes.] K'Tag was just relieved she hadn't canceled their date. He had been looking forward to their third date since the second date ended. The two entered onto the holodeck into a 1950s diner setting, K'Tag hadn't chosen the location, but it would be satisfactory. The two ordered and began to chat.
"When I first came aboard the station, Captain Wallace made fun of my lack of promotion, and it just made me want it even more. He suggested it was my lack of love for the job, or respect. Now he is a big shot at Starfleet Command. I do miss him, but things seem to be more calm once Captain Mallory took over the station. I think she is more of a diplomat. Wallace always loved to be on the battle field, and he wanted me right beside him. Wow, that was so long ago, back then I didn't talk to Tarik, I was almost afraid of him. Well, as afraid as a Klingon can be. Everything has become so calm recently, I'm glad I got the opportunity to be back on a Klingon bird of prey. It is really a wonderful experience." K'Tag was rambling, perhaps it was because he was a nervous wreck, or maybe he was just feeling extra talkative.
"I'm an Earth girl. I was born in New York, but attended the academy in San Francisco. It was my first time really away from home. I got to serve with Commander Worf on the Defiant. It was really nice getting to see him again last week! I hear you are somehow distantly related to him, or something." O'Malley did her own fair share of ramble.
"Yes, you have met N'Garen, she is of the house of Mogh, I adopted her. I owed Ambassador Worf a big favor."
"That is really cool." The two continued to talk until both had to return to their afternoon activities. Worf left to take Zac to a combat lesson, and O'Malley had to get back to her Romulan friend.
Lt. O'Malley sat across the table from a thin Romulan. He had almost a snarl on his face, and didn't budge.
"You must understand, we have taken your people as prisoners only because they were caught conspiring against the Federation. As you know the Federation is engaged in hostilities with the Mullurans, which doesn't help the situation." Lt. O'Malley began to get a little cocky in her own response to the plea of the Romulan to release his people.
"You must also understand, I don't personally have the authority to release the prisoners myself, I'm just negotiating, I must speak to my superiors before any decisions may be made." She continued with one long breath of air. She left no dead time, for the weasel sitting across from her to intervene with his own opinion.
"Let me talk with this Klingon who captured my people unjustly." The Romulan's request was unusual. Why would he want to talk to anyone? it wasn't helping his people get released.
"I can't request the Lieutenant to be here..." O'Malley was cut off.
"Get him here now, or you will have an interstellar war on your hands, and you don't want to be responsible for that!"
[O'Malley to Lt. K'Tag.]
[K'Tag here, go ahead.]
[Could you please report to the conference room.]
[Sure, I'm on my way.] K'Tag was already on the command deck, so wasn't far. He wasn't ready to enter the room and see a Romulan sitting there.
"Ah... so you are the Klingon with no honor. I just wanted to meet you face to face. You don't know what you are getting yourself into." The Romulan pulled out a small dagger, and made his way to Lt. O'Malley. "You will release my people, or she will die.
[Security please report to the conference room.] Lt. O'Malley squealed out of her mouth before it was covered. The Romulan lunged and cut O'Malley's throat. Her lifeless body fell to the floor, and a surge of light beamed the Romulan out of the room.
[K'Tag to transporter room one, I need an emergency transport to sickbay.] The two vanished, as the security entered the room.
Dr. Cherrin turned to see the two beam into his care, he immediately began to revive Lt. O'Malley. K'Tag looked on, as he watched he felt a pain inside of him, one that he had felt before.
[Captain Mallory to Lt. K'Tag and Colonel Tarik, we need both of you on the command deck now, we are reading more Romulans, Nausicaans and Mullurans approaching the station fast.] K'Tag didn't want to leave O'Malley's side, but ran to the command deck, as he began to enter the turbo lift, the lights went to that red dim color, and everyone began to scurry in anticipation of what was about to happen.
"K'Tag we have a situation here, we are being surrounded by 15 ships. I have sent out a distress call, but the nearest ship is two hours away. We are going to have to hold them back." K'Tag felt extremely pained. He knew what they wanted, and it was his fault they were coming after the station. They wanted their people. Just than the station rumbled as it began to take fire. Time passed quickly, K'Tag continued to return fire, and think about O'Malley, and wonder how bad she was hurt.
[Shields down to 30%]
"K'Tag keep firing, we need to hold them off for another 45 minutes." Captain Mallory said crisply as she maintained her composure. K'Tag looked around the entire command and senior staff were on the command deck. It was truly amazing. That is everyone except for O'Malley.
[Shields down to 10%] Murphy's voice traveled very lightly throughout the deck, everyone had a look of shock on their faces. Captain Mallory was flung onto her back and hit her head hard. N'Garen ran to her captain's side.
[Computer activate the emergency medical hologram.] The face of an emotionless doctor appeared on the deck, and began to treat the captain who was now unconscious. Tarik stepped up and began to shout the orders to the crew.
[This is engineering, our shields are down, we can't take much more.] Just than twelve Nausicaans beamed themselves aboard the command deck. Tarik began to fire, as the remainder of the crew took cover. Ensign Craft began to take a Nausicaan on. K'Tag fought with two Nausicaans on his own.
[Jackson to Command Deck, we have Nausicans all over down here.]
[Alcon here--Lt. Shar's dead and I have my hands full on the promenade, Colonel!] Tarik was too busy dealing with his own Nausicaan problems to respond to his marines who were contacting him.
"I'm reading 60 Nausicaan life signs aboard the base. Sir, they have released the prisoners." Everyone looked around in amazement of what had just happened, as K'Tag killed the last Nausican in sight still standing.
"Sir K'Tag has just been beamed onto the lead Romulan vessel, and they're going to warp." Lieutenant Arrix said as he looked up to see an empty spot where K'Tag had just been standing. "The Nausicaans have all returned to their ships, and taken the prisoners with them."
K'Tag than felt a light sensation. He found himself next onboard a Romulan ship, he seemed to be in the brig. A Romulan was standing guard, K'Tag tried to move, but found he was confined to a small area of the room.
"Klingon swine, you make a great trophy for the Star Empire." The Romulan spoke with an excitement in the air.