Everything was quite on the Bridge
as the crew awaited the arrival of the specialist that Starfleet was sending.
They had been tracking the vessels approach for just over a day, watching it
get closer and closer. The crew had also been attempting to find the Kelvan
battle planet, which had so, devastated the system where the Ronin was currently
holding station. As yet no sign of the planet had been detected.
"Captain, we’ve just detected a vessel on long range sensors."
Lieutenant Commander Tyran announced from the tactical station.
"How close ?" Captain Evans enquired.
"About a hundred light years to port." Nige replied.
"Why didn’t we detect it before ?" Ryan asked.
"I don’t know." Nige stated "It appears to have just appeared
from out of nowhere."
"Could it be the battle planet ?" Ryan questioned.
"It’s far too small for that." Nige replied. "Hang on I’m
getting a signal. It’s been sent on a narrow beam. It’s been sent
directly at us."
"It must be homing in on the Ronin’s transponder, just like the transport
is." Chief A.J. Talsmin offered.
"What sort of signal ?" Captain Evans enquired.
"It appears to be a homing signal. It’s definitely a Starfleet signal,
but not one that I’m familiar with." Nige replied.
Suddenly Admiral Pike appeared on the Bridge and walked towards the Operations
console. A.J. relinquished his post to the Admiral, who quickly entered a few
commands into the console.
"The message has ceased." Nige reported.
Captain Evans looked at the Admiral who had moved away from the Ops console
and was stepping down towards the Captain.
"Can I assume that has something to do with you Admiral ?" Ryan asked.
"Lieutenant McMillan, set a course for the vessel maximum warp." The
Admiral ordered. "How long will it take to reach the vessel ?"
Tricia turned her seat around to look at the Admiral and Captain Evans, hoping
to see if the Captain agreed. "It’s going to take us about eight hours.
Admiral at warp, about thirty minutes at transwarp."
"No I don’t want to use the transwarp drive just incase it’s
detected by the Kelvans and alerts them to our presence." The Admiral said.
"Do as the Admiral requested Tricia." Ryan stated. "Admiral can
I have a word with you, in private."
"Of course Captain." Pike replied.
"Shall I signal the transport ?" A.J. asked "Let them know of
our new heading."
"Negative." The Admiral announced "They’ll still be able
to use the transponder signal."
The Admiral and Captain Evans both left towards the Captain’s ready room.
Tricia set the co-ordinates into the helm console and the Ronin moved away from
the devastated planet and towards the unknown vessel that had suddenly appeared.
Aboard the Pony Express
"Yeoman, the Ronin is altering course." Lieutenant Benton remarked
as he monitored the sleds systems.
Yeoman Piper came back into the cockpit from the cramped rear accommodation
where she’d been taking a rest. She took the pilot’s seat and started
to run her fingers over the helm console.
"The package has arrived." She stated after examining the long-range
sensors and noticing the sudden appearance of a small vessel. She almost instantly
recognised the vessel configuration.
"Looks like this trips taking a little longer that originally thought."
She announced.
"What package ?" Benton asked.
"Another part of Starfleet’s plan, they’re almost a month ahead
of schedule." Jamie replied. "But you’ll see in a couple of days."
The Yeoman altered the transporter course so that it would rendezvous with the
Ronin and the new vessel. With any luck they should arrive about six hours after
the Ronin.
Captain’s Ready room
The Admiral and Captain Evans walked into the ready room. Ryan waited until
he heard the doors close behind him before speaking. The Admiral just stood
staring at the Captain, almost as if he was expecting the onslaught he was about
to receive.
"Admiral, may I speak freely ?" Ryan asked.
"By all means." The Admiral replied in a clam voice.
Ryan took a deep breath before he started to speak.
"Admiral, I thought I was still in charge of this vessel and the mission.
How dare you order MY crew around. If you want to take command, then take it,
but if you want me to continue then I need to know what’s going on."
Ryan stated in a louder than necessary voice.
"OK." The Admiral replied. "The vessel is an unmanned transport,
which may just hold the key to our successfully defeating the Kelvan and their
battle planets."
"The genesis torpedoes ?" Ryan stated as the realisation came to him.
"I was wondering where they were going to come from."
"Exactly. Starfleet R & D have been working on the torpedoes, along
with a few other things ever since we first learnt of the Kelvan threat. They
must have sent the package as soon as they received the message about this system."
The Admiral replied. "Let’s just hope that they’ve managed to
complete all the development."
"But how did they get it here so fast ?" Ryan enquired. "It’s
taking the transport eight days at maximum transwarp to reach us."
"Maximum for us." The Admiral replied. "But the transport is
unmanned, it can travel at a much higher transwarp speeds. It’s probably
only taken the vessel a day to reach the rendezvous point."
"That’s why it suddenly appeared on sensors. It had been travelling
so fat that we only detected it once it had arrived." Ryan remarked, finally
getting to grips with what’s happening.
"Exactly." The Admiral replied. "Forgive me for not letting you
know, but I had no idea when and how the equipment would arrive. As for issuing
the command, well that’s just force of habit."
With that last statement Ryan finally realised just how personal the Admiral
was taking this Kelvan threat. He’d already experienced this once, the
fact that it had all been an illusion had only strengthened the Admiral’s
resolve not to let it happen for real.