Approaching the Starbase

The trip from Earth to Starbase 901 had gone smoothly, apart from the attack on the vessel in Sector 001. The minor damage to the Leviathan had been repaired whilst enroute and now the vessel was almost within sight of the station. They had travelled through the slipstream via Ferengi space, circumventing the Briar patch. By doing this, they have shaved off nearly a days worth of travel and would actually be arriving six hours ahead of schedule.

“Helm, time until we reach Starbase 901.” Captain Taybar enquired.

“Just over an hour and a half Captain.” Lieutenant Dare replied from the comm. station.

“We’ve made good time Commander.” Aki commented.

Meanwhile in her quarters Commander Rashad was reading through some intelligence reports on the Axeline race. She had also requested any information gathered from probes sent across the Mulluran demilitarised zone to the space beyond. That data had not yet arrived and Rashad was beginning to think that there were forces working against her.

She had read all the data Starfleet Intel had on the Axeline race, which wasn’t much. They were an advanced race, who’s history had been of peaceful co-existence with their neighbours, at least until a race known as the Kalid arrived.

The Kalid were a race driven out of their own system by aggressors and turned into refugees. The Axeline’s provided a home for the Kalid on a remote planet on the edge of their territory. The Axeline’s had intended to colonise the planet themselves, but offered the Kalid the planet instead.

For over a millennia the Kalid and the Axeline lived peacefully, but as the Kalid population grew, so did their need for more space. Slowly the Kalid started to leave their adopted homeworld and expand, starting with the annexing of their neighbouring systems. The Axeline’s were forced to defend themselves and they thought that they had won.

For another thousand years, peace was restored by the Axeline’s and the Kalid threat thought removed forever. But now somehow the Kalid were back and attacking the Axeline’s much more aggressively.

Suddenly her console became active, breaking her attention away from the reports. Moving from the chair she had been sitting in, she looked at the console and opened the message that was waiting for her.

The message was a simple one : Prepare yourself. There was no sender’s header or place of origin.

“Computer, analysis the message received at my console.” Rashad requested.

[Analysis complete.] The computer replied.

“Locate the source of the message and the sender.” Rashad ordered.

[Unable to confirm.] The computer stated. [The message was corrupted at the transceiver array.]

“Computer, run a full diagnostic on the transceiver array.” Rashad stated. “I want to know why the message was corrupted.”

[Diagnostic complete.] The computer confirmed. [No faults found.]

“Then why was this message corrupted.” Rashad asked.

[Unable to answer due to insufficient data.] The computer replied.

Shutting the console down, Rashad was about to return to her Padd, but the message had unnerved her.

*Where had it come from ?* She thought to herself. *Was it from her mysterious attacker ?. Prepare herself for what ? To kidnap Doctor Kahfre and take her to the rendezvous point ?*

Instead she headed out of her quarters and towards the Intelligence office. Lieutenant Stefen Moss had been attempting to access all the records on the Romulan war from Starfleet with little to no success. Apparently Starfleet had lost most of the records long ago, but Rashad had used some of her contacts and hacking skills to gain access to the Vulcan High Command database and the Andorian public database.

Whilst Starfleet may have lost records, Rashad knew that the Vulcan’s although they had stayed neutral during the war would have monitored and recorded everything they could. As for the Andorians, unlike their neighbours, they had openly supported Earth and Starfleet, providing much needed supplies and technology, for a price.

Rashad had put all her efforts into attempting to access the Romulan databases, looking for both information on the Earth-Romulan war and on any missions undertaken into the space where the Kalid and the Axeline races had their homeworlds.