Crew Transfer

"Captain, I've got the USS George Patton on long-range sensors." Riggins announced.

"How far away ?" Aki asked.

"About twenty minutes." Riggins replied.

"Helm stay on course." Aki ordered.

Twenty minutes later, the Taurus dropped out of transwarp and finally stopped. They'd been running at top speed, overloading their engines for nearly fifty hours. Ensign Luwall had done a good job at keeping the ship running and now she had just one hour to make any necessary repairs.

"Captain, the George Patton is dropping out of warp." Riggins announced.

"As soon as they are in transporter range, start brining across the Marines and their equipment." Aki ordered. "Also have both holodecks cleared, I'm sure the Marines will want to perform some simulation."

"Message coming through." Riggins announced. "It's Captain Holester."

"Put it on screen." Aki ordered. "Captain Holester, I see you've made it."

[Just.] He replied. [We're going to need to have the warp core overhauled as soon as we return to the Alpha quadrant. The Marines are preparing to transfer across to your vessel as we speak.]

"Captain, your efforts and those of your crew are appreciated." Aki commented. "This maybe our one chance at hitting these rogue Jem'Hadar. The latest report from the Hellcat is that they've managed to decipher a message sent to their main vessel. It looks like we're not the only one's after these Jem'Hadar. However, we have the speed to get their first, but it's a small window of opportunity. These Jem'Hadar appear to be preparing to flee their base."

[Sounds like you could be right.] Holester commented.

"Did you have any luck with the array ?" Aki enquired.

[We've discovered something was jamming the sub-space frequencies, scattering the carrier signals.] Holester reported. [We managed to get a signal back to DS9 and their sending someone to check everything out. Someone definitely didn't want any contact between the Gamma and the Alpha quadrants.]

"I get that same feeling." Aki replied. "But to do something like this takes time and effort, this has been planned for some time. It could even have been in place for years, but never activated."

[So you think it's the Dominion that's behind this rather than these rogues ?] Holester suggested.

"It could be something that's been in place every since the array was launched." Aki said. "It's not the first time the array's been down for unknown reasons."

[Which doesn't look good.] Holester commented.

"No it doesn't." Aki confirmed. "But we must get the Marines transferred and be on our way. Taurus out."

The viewscreen turned back to the view of open space and the image of the USS George Patton.

"Captain, we're ready to transfer the first Marines." Riggins announced.

"Understood." Aki replied. "Lieutenant Riggins, you have the Bridge, I'm heading down to transporter room one."

Aki rose from her chair and headed for the turbolift. As she entered, she announced. "Transporter room one."

Transporter Room One

Aki stepped into the transporter room just as the first seven Marines appeared on the transporter pad. She moved towards the pad and held out her hand.

"Major Phanan." She announced. "It's good to see you again."

"Likewise." The Major replied. "So this is your new ship !."

"Yes." Aki replied a note of regret in her voice. "But it's not the Leviathan."

"I can see that." Phanan replied. "You remember Lieutenants Trueman and Gibs."

"Captain Taybar." The two Lieutenants said in unison.

"Welcome onboard." Aki said. "It's good to see you both again."

The Marines stepped off the pad and headed for the door. As they did so, Ensign Lana McQueen appeared at the door.

"Ensign McQueen, would you direct these Marines to the Marine quarters." Aki requested.

"Of course Captain." Lana replied.

"I've had all your equipment stored in cargo bay one and both holodecks are at your disposal Major." Aki informed the Major.

"Thank you Captain." Phanan replied. "We've already been running simulations on the Patton, but I've brought the data across with me. I've ordered everyone to take four hours rest and after we've eaten, we'll resume the simulations."

The Captain and the Major remained in the room as the other Marines disappeared down the corridors of the Taurus. Batch by batch, the Marines appeared and left the transporter room, until there were only two more to come across. Aki recognised most of them from when they had served on the Leviathan, but there were a few new faces amongst the crowd, which the Major introduced to the Captain.

The transporter sparked into life once more and two figures appeared on the pad. One was a small female Marine and the other was a six-foot male in a Starfleet uniform. The Starfleet officer stepped down and stood in front of the Captain.

"Captain, Lieutenant Zachary Dare reporting for duty." He announced. "I'm your new helm officer."

"Can I see your orders ?" Aki asked.

The Lieutenant quickly passed the Captain the Padd with his orders. Aki looked through them and passed them back.

"Welcome aboard Lieutenant Dare." She commented. "I'll have someone assign you some quarters as soon as I can."

"Captain, I'd like you to meet our new field medic, Private Eliza Dyson." Major Phanan introduced the small female.

"Welcome aboard Private." Aki commented.

"Thank you ma'am." Eliza replied. "Would it be possible for me to familiarise myself with your sickbay ?"

"Of course." Captain Taybar said. "It will be nice to have someone in sickbay."

"Oh." Eliza commented. "Where's your CMO ?"

"She left on an away mission, but due to our current circumstances we'll not be able to pick them up just yet."

"I'll see what I can do." Eliza suggested. "With the Major's permission of course."

Major Phanan just nodded his approval. Ensign McQueen returned to the transporter room.

"Ensign, I'd like you to assign some quarters to Lieutenant Dare and then escort Private Dyson to sickbay. With Doctor Kahfre away, she's going to act as our CMO for a while. Lieutenant, as soon as you've settled in, I'd like you to come to the Bridge and take over the helm."

"Yes Captain." Zack replied.

"If you would follow me." Lana suggested.

Zack and Eliza picked up their things and followed Lana down the corridors.

Bridge

Twenty minutes later, Lieutenant stepped onto the Bridge of the USS Taurus for the first time. As he stepped out of the turbolift, he took a quick look around. Captain Taybar was sat in her command chair, with Major Phanan at her side. He stepped down to the front of the Bridge and towards the helm console. The officer that had been manning the helm moved aside and allowed Zack to replace him. He quickly looked over the console and checked the status of the ships propulsion systems.

"Lieutenant Dare." Captain Taybar said. "How are we doing ?"

"Everything looks OK." Zack replied. "Engineering is just finishing off their temporary repairs on the transwarp systems, we should have them back online in about five minutes. Impulse engines and all thrusters are on standby and our course to Regial Seven system has been laid in."

"Tactical, what's the status of our weapons and shield ?" Aki asked.

"All weapons systems are at one hundred percent." Ensign Voktur announced. "We have sixteen quantum and sixty photon torpedoes. Shields are operating at one hundred and five percent."

"Captain, the Patton is hailing us." Lieutenant Riggins announced.

"On screen." Aki ordered.

[Captain Taybar, we're ready to leave.] Captain Holester announced. [Just thought we'd wish you luck in your mission.]

"Thank you Captain." Aki replied. "And a safe journey home. Taurus out."

"The Patton is leaving." Riggins announced. "They're heading back to the wormhole."

"Then I think we're ready to go." Aki commented. "Helm, take us away from here, full impulse. As soon as Engineering brings the transwarp systems back online jump to maximum speed."

"Understood Captain." Zack confirmed.

Five minutes later, the Taurus jumped into transwarp and headed for the rogue Jem'Hadar base. It was going to be another hard twenty-one hours for the ship and its crew.