Admiral Pikes Office
Ryan stood uneasy outside Admiral Pikes ready room. It was time for him to give
his personal statement about his experience and he was assigned to give it to
Admiral Pike. Ryan rang the chime, yet there was no response. He rang the chime
again, still no response.
"Sorry I'm late Captain" said Pike stepping up behind him. "A briefing ran a bit over schedule" He stepped past Ryan and opened the door. "Come in Captain, take a seat."
"Yes sir" Ryan said following him in.
"At ease Ryan, don't call me sir, call me Geoffrey"
"Yes sir, I mean..." Pike grinned at this.
"Coffee he asked"
"Please, two sugars" Ryan responded. Pike punched the order into the replicator and two cups materialised. He set them down on the table as he relaxed behind his desk.
"Right, Ryan, you don't mind me calling you Ryan do you?"
"No sir"
"Ok, I assume you know what this is all about."
"Yes I do"
"Ok, lets start by how you got there."
"Well, the battle in the zebra sector was over. All Barien ships had been destroyed or had retreated. We were beginning repairs on the Ronin after I had got back from sickbay on the Knight?"
"Sickbay? what happened?"
"A decrum torpedo targeted our bridge. I ordered the evacuation, however, myself and Marc Steele, my intelligence officer were the last ones out. and were caught in the explosion. Marc was killed, and I almost died too if it wasn't for Lieutenant Tyran."
"Lieutenant Tyran?"
"Yes sir, from the Knight"
"He's a very resourceful young officer. I knew him well."
"You were once posted with him?"
"I was the former Commanding Officer on the Knight. Only for a few days in your time frame, but in the time frame of the Knights crew, for about three months."
"Our time frame?"
"Never mind Ryan, it is all very confusing. Sufficeth to say, that because of what occurred, I am now stationed here as a matter of Starfleet security. You ought to be careful. You are one of the few Starfleet Captains that have been to the Andromeda Cirrius galaxy and have returned. Because of your knowledge of the Proletarians and Z'terul, you may be stationed here for similar reasons." As Pike uttered those words, Ryans heart sank. *Not the life of an Admiral...*
"But anyway, enough reminiscing about the Knight, lets get on with the interview. You were saying...?"
"Yes, I was transported aboard the Knight for treatment as we had lost our sickbay in the battle. I was soon released back to the Ronin. Once there, I went to supervise repairs in engineering when a bright light swept over us. It didn't take long before we found out where we were. A meeting was called aboard the Leviathan to discuss what to do. We were then attacked by some of the space dwelling creatures of the Z'terul. We retreated and held position away from the planet. It was decided that we were to go back and put an away team on the planet. We sent down a joint team from the Ronin and the Leviathan. This is where the federation shuttle was found."
"Do you have any idea what the shuttle was doing there?"
"Yes I do, but I will come back to that later in the story. As I was saying, we were on the planets surface. The away teams were attacked by a large number of Z'terul forces. They managed to take refuge in a cave along with a race called he Coreans. A large battle ensued and all of the away team were beamed up with minor casualties. We then set a course away from the planet once again. It was decided that the Ronin would go and try and find out some more information or some allies with any new species that we may encounter. Unfortunately we encountered none. We passed a subspace anomaly and decided to head back. This time when we scanned it, we were pulled in to find a planet on the other side. The home planet of the Proletarians." Ryan took a break to drink some of his cooling coffee. "We headed towards the planet and were pulled down to the surface. At this point, Commander Heim fell unconscious and was taken to sickbay. We were then told to beam three representatives out, so myself, Lieutenant Benosk and Ensign McMillan beamed out to meet the Proletarians. We were told that when we needed them, they would be there and to head back to the Leviathan. This we did. However, this is also where our first clue that something was wrong occurred. We discovered that the Ronin had over 1 and a half days worth of missing time while we were in Proletarian space. The next clue came when Heim was examined on the Leviathan and his memories resurfaced of what had happened on the planet. We were to be enslaved by the Proletarians."
"I see" said Pike taking his empty coffee cup back to the replicator. "What happened next?"
"It was decided by Captain Devore, that we were to go back to Moria and make an attempt to save Private Williams, open of the marines that were left behind. The Ronin was to hold position outside the system while this happened. The Leviathan was attacked in space by the Z'terul which landed on the hull. A battle ensued on the hull between the Leviathans marines and security officers. I'm still not sure as to why the attack stopped because as far as I could see, the crew of the Leviathan were loosing. Never the less, the Leviathan went into warp and headed straight away from the system leaving us behind. We were left to encounter the Proletarian ship alone which abducted myself, Lieutenant Benosk and Ensign McMillan."
"Do you know why only you three were abducted?"
"No admiral, I don't"
"Carry on."
"On the ship, we found that we couldn't talk or think of anything without the Proletarians knowing it. So after Benosk was taken away to the science lab, Ensign McMillan and myself were forced to sit in silence and keep our thoughts off our current situation and anything relevant to the federation. We both eventually fell asleep. We awoke to find Benosk and two Vulcans standing over us. They had placed small devices on our necks, that jammed our thought waves and sent out false ones so that the Proletarians would still think they were reading our minds. This is where that federation shuttle comes into play. originally in 2286, two Vulcans and two Humans made a transwarp test flight in two shuttles. There was a problem with their guidance system and they couldn't stop the ships until the engines burned out which happened to be in the Moria system. One of the shuttles was captured and brought to the planets surface. The remaining shuttle was picked up by a Proletarian ship, where they were enslaved. A small colony of Vulcans and Humans grew up on Arial and were used as labourers for the Proletarians. Apparently there was an uprising not too long ago where all but the three we have now were killed by the Proletarians."
"Seems a bit of a savage way to put down an uprising."
"Well they did it, they killed them all."
"Why didn't they kill the three you brought back?"
"Two of them were children at the time, the other, who was one of the original shuttle pilots, refused to take part in the rebellion"
"Ok then, so how did you get off the Proletarian ship?"
"We headed for their engine room and disabled their engines and shields. The Ronin and Leviathan then attacked and destroyed the ship, shortly after beaming us off. However, a number of the Proletarians transported to the Leviathan in an attempt to hijack it."
"Were they successful?"
"I'm afraid I have no idea Geoff. Before the Ronin could do much about it, we were sent back to the Alpha Quadrant. And that ends my story."
"Hmm, definitely an interesting one." Pike smiled. "Do you have any idea what you want to do next Ryan?"
"If possible, I would like to get back to the Ronin and continue with my career in Starfleet."
"You know Ryan, what I said before, about being promoted to Admiral. I have spoken to Admiral Ross, and I am fully authorised to promote you to Commodore and give you the position of Chief of Starfleet Andromeda Galaxy Intelligence." At the sound of this, Ryan once again felt a bit ill.
"Uhh, thats quite a title" Ryan stuttered
"It is indeed Captain and it could be all yours Ryan" said Pike taking out a commodore pip and placing it on the table in front of Ryan. "What do you say?"
Ryan looked down at the pip lying on the table. He couldn't believe he had just been offered a promotion to Commodore as one of the highest positions in Starfleet Command. He rubbed his head " I... I need time to think about this.. Admiral"
"Take all the time you need Ryan, but don't leave it too long. Get back to me before the Ronin departs for her next mission. The offer only stands until then."
"Understood Admiral"
"Dismissed" said Pike. Ryan stood uneasily and headed back to his quarters.
Small bar, New Orleans
As of yesterday, the entire crew of the Ronin had been put on shore leave pending the re-launch of the Ronin. Ryan had been considering Admiral Pikes offer hard but was having difficulty making up his mind. He knew that a few of the crew were getting together in a small bar in New Orleans...
Ryan stepped through the door and looked around. He noticed his crew sitting around a table at the far end.
"Good evening, Captain" said McQueen as Ryan approached. "Pull up a chair sir"
"We're not on duty now, Ryan will do" he smiled as he sat down. "Whats the game?"
"Blackjack. Shall we deal you in?"
"Sure"
"So..." McMillan started "We haven't seen a great deal of you lately sir, I mean, Ryan, what have you been up to?"
"I've been busy at headquarters with intelligence matters"
"Hmm, sounds fun" she said jokingly.
"Everything has been going ok for you lot? No problems?"
"No" they all responded. "Starfleet did send a message to Utopia Planitia yards to get the remaining neural generators so we wont have those when we get back" said McQueen
"Thats not a problem"
"Ryan, you want a drink?" McMillan asked
"Sure why not" The two stood and walked over to the bar.
"Whats wrong Ryan?" McMillan asked.
"What makes you think theres something wrong?" Ryan asked.
"Well you have been acting slightly oddly recently and you haven't shaved in days."
"I've had a lot on my mind" he sighed.
"What'll it be?" asked the barkeep walking up.
"Two lagers" replied McMillan. The barkeep poured the drinks and left. "So, do you want to talk about it?"
"Admiral Pike has offered me a promotion to Commodore."
"Thats good isn't it?"
"Is it? It means leaving the Ronin and staying here at Starfleet command."
"Ahh I see" said McMillan sighing and pulling up a bar stool. "I can imagine why you don't want that position"
"I would be the Chief of Starfleet Operations for the Andromeda Cirrius Galaxy."
"Wow, thats quite a title!"
"Thats exactly what I said. Just think Trish, all those endless meetings and briefings, the constant work load and all those boring old Admirals, i'd have rather remained a Proletarian slave than spend the rest of my life there" he joked.
"Are you sure, you don't want the job Ryan, I mean, You won't have to worry about a ship and crew anymore..."
"No just the safety of the entire federation!!"
"Hmm, I see your point"
"You know, all my life I believed I was born for a reason, as though I were to make a difference in the world. I can't do that from an Admirals office, but at least on the Ronin, I have a chance of doing that. fair enough, she may not be the largest or the toughest ship in existence, but while I'm there, I can make that difference."
"Don't take the job then"
"It's not quite that simple, Starfleet need me. I'm the only one qualified to fulfil that position. No one else has encountered these species before. I'm the only one Trish"
"I suggest you speak to Admiral Pike about it. I mean, if you don't want the job, you shouldn't be forced to take it."
"You would think that would be the case, but believe it or not, I was more than a little against taking command of the Ronin in the first place, however, she was almost forced upon me by Captain Tolok. He forced me to come look at it and even tried ordering me to take command."
"But you ended up taking command anyway, and enjoyed it. You never know, you may even come to love those 'boring old farts'" McMillan grinned
"Not likely" grinned Ryan back. "I think, I'm going to have to think about this a great deal more and theres only one place I know of where I can do this."
"Do what you need Ryan, but I advise you to speak to Pike as soon as possible, the longer you leave it, the harder it will be."
"Thanks Trish. For the advice
and the drink. Now I think I must go think about all this a bit more."
Ryan got up and left the Bar. He headed for the nearest transporter installation
and tapped in the co-ordinates for home.