Calling in Help

Aki rose from her chair and stretched.

"Lieutenant Cutal, you have the Bridge, I'll be in my ready room." She announced.

The Tactical Officer moved from his position at his console and took the command seat, whilst the Captain headed across the Bridge and entered her room.

She walked into her ready room and ordered a black coffee from the replicator. She then sat behind her desk and looked over the Padds that were piled up there. As she sipped her coffee, she worked on her console looking over all the data the ships database had on the Regial Seven System.

There wasn't much and what there was, was sketchy. She turned her attention to the sensor scans of the attack on the Taurus and the two Dominion ships at Bopak III. The fact the rogue Jem'Hadar vessel was there had troubled her, the fact that it had been able to destroy one vessel and disable the other, along with the Taurus troubled her more.

*We need more firepower.* She thought.

"Computer, open a secure channel to Starfleet Headquarters, Admiral Devore's office." Aki ordered.

[Establishing communications link.] The computer replied. [Connection established.]

There was a short delay as the channel synchronised itself, then the image of Admiral Devore came on the screen.

[Captain Taybar.] The Admiral remarked. [To what do I owe the pleasure ?]

"Captain, I'm transferring to you all our reports so far on the rogue Jem'Hadar and our assessment of their capabilities. We've also just received information from the Hellcat and Lieutenant Commander Barker on the location of the rogue Jem'Hadar's base of operations. It's an asteroid field in the demilitarised zone between Federation and Dominion space, Regial Seven." Aki stated. "I'm worried that the Taurus will not be enough to stop these Jem'Hadar, we've seen their vessel destroy a Dominion battleship. The Taurus was heavily damaged during the attack and it was only the differences between Dominion and Federation technology that saved us. We need support from the Federation."

The Admiral was working on his console off-screen.

[The USS George Patton is due to leave DS9 in about six hours.] The Admiral stated. [But it's not a warship. The nearest vessel to DS9 at the moment is the USS Talon, but it will take five days to reach Regial Seven. The Defiant is off on a joint mission with the Klingons and isn't due back for another thirty hours. As soon I can contact them, I'll send them along.]

"I'm aware of the Patton's schedule and I have already altered course to intercept the ship and transfer the crew." Aki replied. "But I think the Defiant will be too late to assist, unless they started off now."

[There is the……] The image of Devore disappeared suddenly from the screen.

"Computer, why did the link drop ?" Aki asked. "Re-open the channel to Admiral Devire."

[Unknown.] The computer replied. [Unable to re-establish contact with Starfleet Headquarters Earth.]

Aki struggled for five minutes trying to manually re-connect herself with the Admiral, but to no avail. She had no idea what was wrong, everything seemed to be functioning normally and there was no reason for the inability to connect back with Earth.

"Computer, what is the status of the sub-space transceiver ?" Aki asked.

[The transceiver is operation at ninety-eight percent.] The computer reported.

"Then why can't I open a channel to Admiral Devore ?" Aki asked firmly.

[Unknown.] The computer replied annoyingly.

Aki stood up from her seat and headed back to the Bridge.

The Captain emerged from her ready room, she was not feeling happy. The lost of the communication link with Admiral Devore was a problem.

"Lieutenant Riggins, I've just lost the link to the Bajorian relay station. I can't open a channel to DS9." Aki stated. "Check the sub-space transceiver."

There was silence as Lieutenant Riggins attempted to connect with the wormhole relay.

"The transceiver is working properly and I'm getting a carrier signal from the nearest sub-space relay." Reegan reported. "Captain, I can't get a signal from the relay station at the wormhole. That's why we've lost the signal, it looks like it's off-line."

"Off-line, are you sure." Aki asked.

"I'm sure, I can't establish a sub-space link with the relay station at all." Reegan stated. "Local sub-space transmission is OK, because other relay stations compensate, but the wormhole station is our only link to the Alpha quadrant."

"Damn." Aki cursed under her breath. "We'll have to try and contact the reinforcements when the come through the wormhole at 09:00 tomorrow. Riggins, keep trying to get a signal. Helm remain on course."

<<The start and end of this post are taken from the Taurus Post 100, "Things to Do">>