Arrival

James Wright arrived on the Bridge and looked out of the forward windows. Travelling at slipstream velocity was such an amazing sight to behold and Captain Taybar had told him that the journey would take at least a week using any other vessel. The Hellcat had made the trip in less than three days and now they were approaching Bopak III and his new ship.

"Take a seat Lieutenant, we’re about to drop out of the slipstream and head into the Bopak system." Captain Taybar suggested, having noticed his arrival on the Bridge.

The entire crew of the Hellcat was already seated and the only available seat was the tactical console at the front of the Bridge. James wondered whether the Captain had left that very seat unoccupied for some reason.

"We’ll be leaving the slipstream in five, four, three, two, one…" Shale announced from beside Wright.

The small ship was shot out of the slipstream and came to a gradual halt. Wright relaxed his body after the trip. Sitting at the back of the Bridge had been amazing, but to be inches away from the cockpit window when you came out of the slipstream was both frightening and exhilarating.

"We’ve got the Taurus on long-range sensors." Chu announced from the operations console. I’m also reading a second ship, which appears to be a Dominion battleship. Should I hail the Taurus ?"

"No." Aki replied. "We don’t know the situation or whether the Dominion vessel is friendly or not. I think caution is in order here, activate the cloaking device."

The Hellcat had been fitted with a Federation cloaking device during its last refit. With the amendments to the treaty of Algeron, the Federation had been able to develop and install cloaking devices on many vessels. The amended treaty had limited the size of vessel a cloaking device could be installed and there was a clause which prevented any Federation vessel using such a device whilst in Klingon or Romulan space. The largest vessels to be equipped with a cloak had been the new Intrepid II class vessel, so the Hellcat was well within the size limited.

"Cloak engaged." Chu announced.

"Mister Shale, take us to Bopak III, full impulse." Aki ordered.

USS Taurus

The crew of the Taurus had been working hard over the past few days trying to get the ship back into shape. They had suffered major damage to many of the systems, received when an unknown vessel appeared out of nowhere and initially attacked two Dominion battleships, destroying one and crippling the other. A rescue vessel from the Dominion was still at least a day away, so the large vessels only defence against another attack was the much smaller New Orleans class vessel from the Federation. By rights, the Dominion vessels should not have been there, Bopak III was now in Federation territory and normally the presence of Dominion warships would have been seen as an act of war.

But the Dominion and the Federation were working together, trying to find a rogue faction of Jem’Hadar who had kidnapped two Federations scientists. So far the search had proved futile, Bopak III had been the first hard lead either side had made.

"Captain, I just detected some sort of spatial distortion about thirty light minutes outside the system." Lieutenant Lune reported. "But it’s gone now."

"Why ?" Lieutenant J’Ross enquired. "Can you identify the nature of the distortion ?"

"No." Lune replied. "Our long-range sensors are still not fully operational, all I saw was a disturbance and then whatever caused it disappeared."

"Go to Yellow alert." J’Ross announced. "Bridge to all crew. We have just detected a distortion at the edge of this system. It maybe the vessel that attacked the Dominion vessels and us, so be prepared for an attack."

"Shields are at ninety percent and all torpedo tubes are loaded and ready to fire." Lieutenant Cutal announced. "We have power to all phaser arrays, but two, three and six are on reduced power."

"The warp core is fully operational and at one hundred percent." Ensign Luwall announced from the Engineering console on the Bridge. With the death of the chief engineer, Rachel was acting in his place. "The transwarp systems are also operational, but we’re still not at one hundred percent."

"But we should have enough speed to escape if needs be ?" J’ross enquired.

"Certainly Captain." Rachel replied.

"Mister Lune, what about sensors ?" J’ross enquired. "Can you detect a cloaked vessel with them in their current state ?"

"We should be able to sweep the area and find any cloaked vessels." Fai replied. "But our sensor range would be limited."

"Keep truing, I want to be able to go to red alert as soon as we know there’s a ship out there." J’ross ordered.

USS Hellcat

"Captain, I have a more detailed scan of the Dominion vessel." Chu announced. "It appears that he vessel has suffered major damage to many of its systems. I’m not detecting any warp signature, which would suggest that their warp core is off-line. I’m also picking up areas of the vessel that are open to space and severe hull damage."

"What about the Taurus ?" Aki enquired. "Have they been damaged as well ?"

"Scans show that the vessel appears to be intact." Chu replied. "But their shields are up and I’m detecting that their weapons are active. They’re also sending out high-power scans, from the configuration I’d guess that they’re looking for a cloaked vessel, most likely us."

"Open a channel." Aki ordered. "Prepare to de-cloak."

USS Taurus

"Vessel de-cloaking thirty degrees to starboard." Lieutenant Cutal announced.

"Red alert." J’ross ordered. "Target their weapons and propulsion."

"Captain, we’re receiving a hail." Ensign Lune announced.

"And the vessel is not the same one that attacked us." Cutal added.

"On screen." J’ross announced.

[Lieutenant J’ross I presume.] The Trill female that appeared on the main viewscreen asked. [Do you always greet your new commanding officer with full weapons lock ?]

M’eko was shocked at the message, turned to Cutal and nodded. Cutal deactivated the weapons and lowered the shield, then switched off the red alert.

"My apologies, but we detected an unknown distortion at the edge of this system and thought that the Dominion vessel which attacked us had returned." J’ross explained. "We know that they have a modified Romulan cloaking device, but it has limited use to them."

[Apology accepted.] Captain Taybar announced. [We’ll be in transporter range in a few minutes, I’d like to meet the senior staff as soon as possible after my arrival.]

"Captain, we’ve been expecting you but not this soon." J’ross announced. "There’s no way you could have reached us this fast."

[The Hellcat is a unique shuttle.] Aki replied, proud of her vessel. [It’s equipped with a Quantum Slipstream Drive. We left Earth a little under three days and travelled directly here.]

"We’ll meet you in transporter room one." J’ross announced. "Taurus out."

J’ross rose from the command chair and walked towards the turbolift. "Lieutenant Cutal, you have the Bridge."

Five minutes later, J’ross was in transporter room one and had been joined by Lieutenant Logan McQueen, the chief of security. The transporter buzzed and three bodies appeared on the pads. One was a Trill female and obviously Captain Taybar, the other two were both human. One was dressed in a gold uniform and the other in slate grey.

They stepped off the pads and Captain Taybar introduced them all.

"Lieutenant J’ross I presume." She started. "Any you must be Lieutenant McQueen. Captain Taybar, formally of the USS Leviathan-A. The two crewmembers with me are Ensign Janos Ellison, who will be joining your security team I believe Mister McQueen. The other is Lieutenant James Wright, he’s going to be our new Intelligence officer, but Starfleet has also given him full diplomatic rights. He has some experience of dealing with the Dominion and the powers that be think he will be an asset to the crew."

"Pleasure to meet you all." J’ross replied. "We’ll have all your belongings transferred across from the Hellcat and taken to your quarters. I’ve arranged a briefing as requested Captain Taybar. And may I say that I am glad that the responsibility of the ship has been handed over to you."

"I believe the Taurus is your first posting as XO." Aki stated. "Must have been a hard time suddenly finding yourself in command of the whole ship. I’ve done it myself and I was only promoted to Captain a year ago. However, being first officer is still a hard job, sometimes harder than being Captain. You have to ensure the crew works together, be a filter for your Captain. I have read your service record and I believe we can work well together."

"Thank you Captain." J’ross purred. "Now if you’ll follow us, we’ll lead you to the briefing room."

The five members of the Taurus crew left the transporter room and headed for the briefing room. For the first time in days, M’eko smiled, relieved that the burden of command had been lifted from her shoulders. This new Captain appeared on the surface to be fair, but only time would tell if they could work together. As for the other two new crewmembers, Ellison was Logan’s responsibility and Wright was the Captain’s.