The communications officer aboard
the USS Churchill announced over the Aldrin's communications system.
The massive cargo bay doors of the Churchill slowly opened beneath the small
craft and Tricia then fired the dorsal thrusters, lowered the Aldrin out of
the cargo bay and into open space once more.
"This is the USS Aldrin, I have cleared the cargo bay doors and I am proceeding towards DS 9. Thank you Churchill for the ride and I hope to see you again someday. Aldrin out" She announced.
Above her the cargo bay doors closed again and she fired the forward thrusters, propelling the shuttle slowly away from the transport ship that had been her home and started to head towards DS9.
As she cleared the Churchill completely, she brought the impulse engines on-line and increased her speed to one quarter impulse, heading towards the station hanging in space.
"DS9 flight control, this is Ensign Tricia McMillan of the shuttlecraft USS Aldrin. Requesting permission to dock and await the arrival of the USS Ronin."
"Thank you flight control. Do you have an ETA on the Ronin's arrival."
"Thank you DS9, Aldrin out" Tricia acknowledged. As she guided the small shuttlecraft towards the signal beacon and the docking pad, she noticed a vessel undocking from one of the upper pylons. Her instruments shown it to be the USS Leviathan-A, an Akira class starship, with the latest development of the new slipstream drive technology. Tricia had learnt about the theories behind the slipstream drive and hoped one day to actually experience the feeling of traveling in the quantum slipstream. She had heard stories about this new drive, some sounded totally ridiculous, but others sounded really exciting.
The Leviathan-A maneuvered away from the pylon and took up station about fifty kilometers from the station. Its place was then taken by an older Ambassador class vessel.
Tricia suddenly noticed that there were several other vessels "orbiting" DS9, including several Miranda and Oberth class vessels, a couple of Excelsior and Ambassador ships and a single Galaxy class. Flying between these vessels were tens of smaller craft, mainly shuttles and "worker-B's". As well as the Federation vessels there were also several Klingon vessels, of varying classes. The most interesting vessel however was also probably the oldest, the USS Stargazer. A Constellation class vessel and a design that was over fifty years old. What was such an "old-timer" doing around here ?.
The Constellation class was certainly a formidable battle craft, with twin warp cores and four warp nacelles it had originally been designed for extended deep space exploration. The two warp cores however also gave the class the ability to defend itself and formidable firepower. Until the Defiant and its fountain stream phasers, the Constellation class had the highest phaser output to vessel displacement ratio.
Most of the other vessels also seemed to be of older designs, probably taken out of "storage" from Starfleet reserves. Tricia knew that this was the formation of an armada, ready to do battle with yet another threat to the Federation.
Suddenly, two new energy signatures appeared on the Aldrin's sensors, at first Tricia didn't recognize them, until she saw two Romulan D'deridex class warbirds "de-cloaking" in front of her. Tricia listened in on the conversation between the lead warbird and DS9 flight control. The two had been sent by the Romulan command, mainly in thanks for the assistance the original Leviathan, Captain Devore and the Federation had given the Romulan Empire during an attack by the Borg.
"This is getting serious!" She exclaimed out loud, even though there was no-one else to hear her. She brought the tiny shuttlecraft safety to land on the pad and waited as the pad lowered itself into the hanger bay.
Once the Aldrin's systems were shutdown, she headed for the Promenade to get something to eat. This would probably be her last chance to get a decent meal. Once the *Ronin* arrived, she knew it wouldn't be long before the armada would depart.