Nuans (Part 2 of 2)

"Damn him." Harris yelled out loud as he heard Toran's message. He sat at the desk in the Ready Room yelling at the top of his lungs. Finally grabbing his composure, Commander Harris walked onto the Bridge controlling the rage the swelled up within him and looked at Captain Phanan. "What the hell is going on ?"

"Sir, I don't know." Captain Phanan said shrugging his shoulders.

Finding no reason not to trust him, Harris walked over to the command chair and sat down. "Mr. Mason are our diplomatic officials aboard ?" He asked taking a deep, relaxing breath.

"Aye sir.

"Good. Helm lay in a course 034 mark 2." Commander Harris said skilfully hiding his discontentment with what was going on and the progress it was making.

"Aye sir."

A few minutes later, a young Nuan female stepped onto the Bridge. She was quite pretty with blond hair and green eyes. She came onto the Bridge with a presence that demanded respect but yet seemed to have a subtlety, even a softness to her. Commander Harris turned to face her and smiled for it had truly been a while to see such a vision of beauty. The young Nuan returned the smile.

"I am Major Maul of the Nuan militia. Where may I find Commander Harris ?" She said in an angelic voice.

Harris stood up and smiled wider, "I'm Commander Harris. What can I do for you ?"

She quickly walked around and reached out her hand. He took it and shook it gently. Maul smiled. "I am the Nuan Ambassador and Military Liaison to the Nuan Council. I speak on behalf of the Nuans in all matters."

"Very well. However Major, this may not be the time to talk about the treaty. You see one of my officers has stolen a shuttle." Harris said sitting back down.

Maul gave an understanding nod. "May I remain on the Bridge, Commander ?"

"Absolutely. Please have a seat here," Harris said motioning to his seat next to the command chair.

"Sir. We are crossing the threshold to Barien space," Mason said from Ops.

"All stop! Ensign Mason. Scan the whole area for any signs of warp signatures mainly the Hellcat, Lynx, but also any other large scale warp signature."

"Aye sir," Mason acknowledged as he began working as fast as possible. In about two minutes he found something. "Sir, I've found a Federation warp core signature 50 billion kilometres, bearing 053 mark 2."

"Very good Mr. Mason. Can you identify who that is ?"

"No sir."

"Well either or it doesn't matter there is business to deal with from both. Helm get us over there," Harris said.

"Commander." Major Maul said softly. "There is a Barien colony only five light years from here. I think that it is safe to assume that they have detected us or any non-Barien ship passing within ten light years of it."

Harris was quiet. *Damn !*

"Captain Phanan. Initiate battle drills with your Marines. I want all decks locked down. Bring the ship to Yellow Alert," Harris ordered. "Load all torpedo tubes and charge the phaser array. I want the Leviathan ready for anything."

"Aye sir." Phanan said from Tactical who was filling in for Toran.

*I hope there are no run-ins with the Bariens.* Harris thought.