"Commander, we’ve reached
the co-ordinates." Tricia announced as she brought the Ronin out of warp.
"There’s still no sign of the vessel." Nige remarked.
The vessel that they’d recently picked up had vanished just as mysteriously
as it had arrived on sensors. They had been ordered to rendezvous with the vessel
by Admiral Pike, but it had vanished again almost as soon as the Ronin had entered
warp.
"Bridge to Captain Evans." Commander Markos announced. "We have
reached the last known position of the vessel. No sign of the vessel on sensors."
[Evans here. Run a sensor sweep for debris, maybe the Kelvan detected the vessel
and destroyed it. I’m on my way to the Bridge, contact the Admiral and
have him meet us there. Evans out.] The Captain replied.
Captain’s quarters
"Time to go to work." He said softly to the still half-asleep Karissa.
He had been sitting just watching her sleep, there wasn’t much for him
to do at the moment. They were still awaiting the arrival of the Federation
specialist and would still have been in orbit around the planet recently decimated
by the Kelvan if it had not been for the arrival of the mysterious vessel and
the Admiral’s orders.
Quickly he picked up his jacket and headed back to the Bridge.
Bridge
"Bridge to Admiral Pike. We’ve reached the co-ordinates of the vessel,
but there’s no sign of it on sensors. The Captain is on his way back to
the Bridge and has requested your presence." Kira said over the intercom.
[I’ll be with you in five minutes. Until then I suggest that you cut engines
and hold our current position. We wouldn’t want to be hit by anything.]
Pike replied.
"Understood Admiral. Bridge out." Commander Markos replied.
Something about the Admiral’s orders puzzled Kira. *Hit by anything. What
could there be to hit us out here. It was just open space, no vessels, no planets,
not even a rogue asteroid.* He thought.
"Tricia cut engines and hold our current position." The Commander
ordered.
Five minutes later the Admiral arrived on the Bridge. Captain Evans had already
arrived and taken his command seat, with Commander Markos now sat to his left.
The Admiral walked behind Ops and A.J. relinquished his console for the Admiral.
Suddenly Nige exclaimed. "Vessel decloaking, dead ahead approaching at
one quarter impulse, intercept course."
"Red Alert." The Captain ordered out of instinct. "Wait, belay
that order."
Ryan rose from his chair and turned around to look at the Admiral behind the
Ops station. The Admiral just smiled and moved away from the console so that
A.J. could retake his position.
"Captain, it’s a Klingon Bird of prey and it’s old." Nige
exclaimed from tactical. "The Klingons haven’t built any of the B’rel
class for over fifty years. The vessel is coming to a stop five hundred kilometres
ahead."
"Tricia, takes us towards the vessel, thrusters only." Ryan ordered.
*So that’s what the Admiral meant not getting hit.* Kira thought.
"Admiral ?" Ryan asked as he watched the Admiral stroll down and take
the vacant seat to the right of the Captain.
The Admiral just smiled again.
Ryan realised that the Admiral wasn’t going to give away anything just
yet. He sat down again and observed the small Klingon vessel on the main viewscreen.
As they drew closer.
"Captain. That’s no ordinary Klingon scout." Nige stated from
Tactical.
"He’s right." A.J. continued from Ops. "The hulls been reinforced
with monotanium armour. I’m also finding it hard to get any clear sensor
readings from inside the vessel, there appears to be some kind of sensor clouding
at work."
"What’s the status of the environment ?" Ryan asked.
"The vessels environmental system appear to be coming back online. I’m
starting to read a rise in internal temperature." A.J. replied. "It’s
still cold though, but bearable without using special clothing. I estimate it
will take another six hours to reach normal temperature."
"That’s too slow. OK, we’ll go inside and try and see if we can’t
speed up the process. Commander, form an away team and secure the vessel."
Ryan ordered. "And use breathers until you’re sure the atmosphere
is safe."
"Right away." Kira replied, rising from his seat and heading for the
turbolift.
Transporter Room One
Commander Markos was waiting for the rest of the away team to arrive. Already
here was Ensign Danielle Holmes, the relief helm officer who had transferred
aboard from Deep Space 11. Kira had spent quite a few hours observing her at
the helm, both when they were working on Gamma shift together and when Dani
had stood in for Tricia McMillan, when Tricia and Captain Evans were both back
on Earth.
She was a very accomplished pilot and probably the equal of McMillan. But she
was also young, at times impatient and fiercely competitive. Kira had reviewed
her Starfleet record (As he did with all of the new crew) and had already spoken
to both the Captain and Tricia about giving her more responsibility and more
shifts on the Alpha watch.
Lieutenant Gregholt arrived from Engineering, closely followed by two security
officers. One, Kira recognised immediately as Lieutenant Cody Yellowhorse, the
other a young Ensign with a slightly ridged forehead he was having more trouble
recognising.
*Ensign Topar. Daniel Topar.* Kira remembered, Half human, half Klingon. If
Kira remembered correctly, his father was a Starfleet Captain and his mother
had died during childbirth. Although he was half Klingon, Daniel hadn’t
shown the fierce warrior instinct until he joined the Academy. Whether this
was because he’d not been exposed to Klingon culture first hand or because
he’d always been brought up around humans no one knew.
But he was a competent security officer and Lieutenant O’Neal had reported
that he had the makings of a fine officer. He’d also spent some time aboard
a Klingon training vessel whilst at the Academy and had an aptitude for Engineering.
O’Neal must have thought that he would make a fine addition to the away
team when Kira had requested two security officers for the away team.
With the arrival of Gregholt, Yellowhorse and Topar, the away team was now complete.
The five of them stepped onto the transporter pads and waited.
"Breathers on." The Commander ordered.
The familiar shimmer of dematerialization came over the away team and seconds
later they were aboard the Klingon vessel.