The Triangle To The Universe

The crew of the USS Luna investigate some spacial anomalies.

001: It Begins

USS Luna
2401

—- USS Luna —-
 

Captain Adriana Cruz looked at the two Vulcans who were, at least temporarily, members of her crew and nodded. Glancing over towards Lieutenant Commander Gabriella Miller she asked her Chief of Science, “We got them setup with what they need?”

Miller nodded, “We got the lab during our recent refit, everything’s in place for a study of the anomalies in the Triangle.”

“Lieutenant Commander Miller has been most, accommodating,” the female Vulcan said her name Setiv.

Cruz nodded, she was glad to hear it, but had expected no less. The science team on the Luna was used to working with others, such as their brief time with a Romulan scout ship studying anomalies in Romulan space, until her former XO had called in a Klingon attack and destroyed the Romulan ship.

She leaned back in the faux leather chair of her ready room and nodded, at what passed for a high compliment from a Vulcan. Outside the window they were going at Warp Seven to a reported anomaly prior to heading to the Triangle where they would explore and do whatever ‘science stuff’ the scientists wanted.

“All seven members of your team have quarters sorted?” Cruz asked, knowing that very likely Lieutenant Commander Tashai had already sorted that all out.

The male Vulcan, Sverin, nodded, “A member of your operations team saw to our needs.”

There was a chime indicating a message from the bridge. Commander Olivia Carrillo’s voice came out of a speaker hidden in the room, “Ma’am, you had better come out here, we have a tail.”

“It is not logical for the ship to grow a tail,” Sverin said.

“It is a human expression meaning we are being pursued,” Setiv said as if to indicate that some Vulcans were familiar with human words and phrases.

“Alright everyone, dismissed,” Cruz said rising and heading for the door and the bridge of the USS Luna. She nodded at her XO and said, “What do we got?”

“Romulan D’deridex-class,” Carrillo said, “behind us about a hundred kilometers.”

Cruz whistled, “Even with a treaty that’s a heck of a thing to be flying in Federation space without notice. If they aren’t cloaked they want us to see them. Drop out of warp, come around and face them. Yellow alert.”

“Yellow alert,” Carrillo repeated nodding to tactical.

At the tactical station Lieutenant Claudia Jara reported, “Warbird’s shields are down, dropping out of warp.”

“Hail them Jara,” Cruz said.

A stern looking Romulan male appeared, “This is Commander Sibolv of the Tal Shiar, I am looking for the human Captain Cruz or the USS Seattle, is this you?”

Cruz nodded, “I no longer command the USS Seattle, but that is me.”

“You assisted a lost colony of Romulans, and left your doctor behind, is that true?”

“One of our doctors remained behind, Doctor T’Rala Mathews, she was our Assistant Chief Medical Officer.”

“I was tasked with retrieving our people, and now I have your doctor to return,” he said, he smiled a thin almost artificial looking smile, “Perhaps you could join me for dinner this evening.”

Cruz glanced at Carrillo, already anticipating her First Officer’s objection about going on away missions and heading into danger. Still she wanted to get back T’Rala and while the Tal Shiar were not to be trusted if the man had wanted to do her harm it would have been relatively easy to beam a crew of Romulans on board.

“I assume you’re going to the anomaly in the Triangle, as are we,” Sibolv said, “we might as well observe it together, in the spirit of cooperation.”

Cruz nodded, “I am sure my First Officer will object but I accept your invitation, thank you. I’ll bring a bottle of wine.”

As the communication ended it did not take long for Carrillo ask to see Cruz in the ready room to do just that, object. She reasonably pointed out that the Tal Shiar were not to be trusted and the ship could not lose its captain.

“Do you want to go and pretend to be me?” Cruz asked, “I doubt he could tell the difference, people always ask if we’re sisters. Romulans have a hard time telling humans apart.”

Carrillo sighed at the teasing, it was a stretch to suggest a high ranking Tal Shiar operative would be that oblivious to be unable to tell them apart. “Look, I just want to do things by the book, I don’t plan on getting my command by getting my captain poisoned.”

Cruz winced, “Okay fair, but low blow chica.”

“So you’ll back out?” Carrillo said.

“No, but you’re getting better at standing up to authority,” Cruz said.

002: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

USS Luna - the Triangle
2401

Captain Cruz materialized on the D’deridex-class warbird’s bridge and spotted the doctor that she had not seen in months. T’Rala Matthews wore a simple cloak that had clearly been what she was wearing while living with the lost colony of Romulans over the past few months. She hugged her doctor, who hugged her back.

“You know that’s the first hug I’ve had in months,” T’Rala said.

“What Romulans not big huggers?” Cruz teased.

“No we are not,” interjected Commander Sibolv who watched the two, one Romulan raised by humans and the other a human captain.

At one of the terminals a Romulan officer said, “We are closing in on the anomaly. I’m putting it on screen.”

The screen was filled with a strange looking wormhole thing, that was not a wormhole, at least according to the scientists that Cruz had consulted with.

“The Federation ship is launching a probe and taking up a position to study it,” the same officer reported.

Cruz nodded, “We have a science team that is on board to observe this and a few other things of interest. We had a specialty probe manufactured.”

Sibolv nodded, “Do the same, fire a probe in and collect readings. Alert me if anything changes. Captain Cruz, Doctor T’Rala please join me for dinner.”

“So what’s new?” T’Rala asked as they followed Sibolv to his dinning room.

“My XO Klar went nuts, killed a bunch of Romulans and buggered off,” Cruz said, “I got stabbed by an insane changling that the Tal Shiar had in captivity. New XO, obviously, we did a tour of Romulan space. Dealt with Cardassians a few times, pirates.”

T’Rala smiled, “So slow then.”

“Doctor V’Tok died,”  Cruz said somberly, “I’m sorry I know you were close. He was killed by the changling.”

T’Rala nodded, “He was special.”

“So you’re our new Chief Medical Officer, if you’ll take the position. We’ve been using a EMH to supplement our team since then,” Cruz said.

T’Rala nodded, not sure how to react. Her and V’Tok had been like siblings in some ways, with them always teasing each other, V’Tok in his dry was and T’Rala in her jokey very human way that she had about her. She’d served under him on the USS Seattle and the USS Luna.

They were lead to a small table, and seated next to Commander Sibolv, who had the first course of a cold soup brought out. Cruz figured it was meant to be cold, and it actually was quite tasty.

“So a Luna-class ship,” Sibolv said, “The Luna-class ship, the one commanded by Captain Riker that opened up relations with Romulus.”

“No, that was the USS Titan,” Cruz said, “This is the Luna, the first of the Lunas but not the Titan.”

Sibolv nodded, Cruz knew the mistake was calculated, the Tal Shiar knew what was the first Federation ship to their home world and wouldn’t have made that mistake. She wondered to what end.

“Do you enjoy it more than the USS Seattle? That was a Rhode Island-class named for a state in America a human country,” Sibolv observed, “Our files say they’re small and fast. That was your first command.”

“Yes,” Cruz said, “You’re files are good. There’s always something about your first command, but the Luna is more comfortable and packs more of a punch. I don’t have to talk my way out of fights with pirates as much now.”

The Romulan commander nodded, while he did not deal with pirates he understood that they were troublesome out in the Triangle. He was about to call for the next course of their meal when he was interrupted by a chime, “Commander we have a Klingon Negh’Var-class warship decloaking on our starboard.”

Cruz’s commbadge similarly beeped, and Commander Carrillo’s voice came from it, “Captain, Klingons are here a Negh’Var-class.”

“You should return to your ship things are likely to become complicated,” Sibolv observed.

Cruz nodded, tapping her comm badge, “Two to beam back now.”

“Klingons are raising shields and arming,” the bridge of the Romulan ship reported, adding, “Raising our shields.”

Suddenly the Romulan ship shook and Cruz tumbled out of her dining chair. In less than a minute she’d gone from a tense dinner with a Romulan to being fired on by the Klingons.

“Captain the Klingons have launched torpedoes at the Warbird,” Carrillo said through comms, “we can’t beam you back while the Romulans have shields up.”

Cruz knew better than to ask the Romulans to raise their shields, not that it mattered. They’d been too slow for the initial salvo of torpedoes and something felt off to Cruz, the ship was listing.

T’Rala pointed out the window, “That’s part of the ship right?”

Cruz saw that they had become detached from the back half of the Warbird.

“Shields down, we’ve lost engineering,” came the reports through the internal communications system, as the Romulans began to panic. The ship floated towards the anomaly, and suddenly the world went sideways.

003:Captain Lost

The Triangle
2401

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

 

“We’ve cleaned up the area,” the Klingon who had introduced himself as Klar grinned.

Commander Olivia Carrillo wanted to punch him in the nose, “Our Captain and doctor was onboard.”

Klar frowned, “Cruz?”

“Cruz,” Carrillo said and then not knowing what else to say cut the transmission.

“We go in after them,” she said to the bridge and most nodded, supportive of the decision to throw caution to the wind and go after their captain.

The Vulcan scientists who had been assigned to the ship to study the anomaly very slightly frowned. It was almost imperceptible but though she was not telepathic Carrillo sensed their disappointment before they voiced it,  “We do not have readings back from the probe we sent into the anomaly. We should wait until we have readings back.”

“I’m getting back our captain any objections other than that,” Carrillo asked, eying Pr’Nor, wondering if the Vulcan helm officer would side with the logical Vulcan scientists.

“The ship operates optimally with its captain,” Pr’Nor said, a polite way of registering her support for the plan to throw logic aside and charge into the unknown blindly.

“Take us in, full impulse,” Carrillo said.

The USS Luna banked and passed the Klingon Negh’Var-class as it entered the swirling colourful mass. Carrillo felt the world warp around her and then the space she knew vanished as the Luna was pulled forward as if it had been pushed down an icy hill.

They seemed to be traveling along a kind of tunnel of sub space, and she ordered every possible scientific test to be conducted. The two Vulcans bent over their science stations and began to work.

“Commander part of the warbird is coming at us, in debris,” the Chief of Security Lieutenant Jara reported.

“Shields up,” Carrillo said and suddenly their field of view on the viewscreen was littered with blackish green pieces of metal as the back half of the warbird hit them in chunks. It was like being in an asteroid storm and they all could hear metal scrapping the hull, the shields the only thing protecting them from devastation of their own.

It was about an hour before it passed, and the Luna continued on speeding to whatever its destination was.

 

— USS Luna,  Tranquility Base Lounge —-

 

Commander Olivia Carrillo looked up from her coffee to see Chief Counselor and the temporary First Officer Yuhiro Kolem enter the lounge. The counselor got herself an energy drink of some green concoction and sat down across from Carrillo so that they were both positioned to see out the expansive window onto the scene outside the ship.  They shared a moment, watching it.

The scene was unlinks anything they’d seen. Despite taking a short cut, as it were, across known space and potentially beyond it, it seemed like they were barely moving. Carrillo knew that humans, and other races, were easy enough to fool into thinking that they were moving or not. Starships travelled faster than you could really wrap your head around and yet unless you looked out a window it felt like you were motionless on the Luna. Yet you could barely be moving on the holodeck and through careful visual trickery think you’d fallen from a mountain or had skydived.

There was nothing in the anomaly to really track their progress, not like stars in warp normally. Colours swirled by, but not in any particularly consistent direction. Space looked as if it was bending into itself and to try to understand it seemed quite complicated and perhaps impossible like an  painting by Escher where stairs seemed to twist upon themselves defying even Vulcan physics.

“You ready to be my First Officer,” Carrillo asked the Lieutenant finally.

Kolem laughed, “No, not really. But I don’t suppose I have a choice.”

“How is the crew?” Carrillo asked, adding, “I got some stick from the science team for leaping before looking.”

“They’ll be fine. I’ve had two Captains since the academy, Captain Hawthorne and Captain Cruz. Hawthorne always cared that everyone understood he knew what he was doing. Cruz learned on the job, and she let you know that. People want to save her, they’re loyal to her, and so you being loyal isn’t a bad thing,” Kolem said, “And as long as your honest about it, you don’t need to know everything.”

Carrillo nodded, “I may have gotten us more stranded than Voyager.”

Kolem shrugged, “Records are meant to be broken. Besides we have a better ship.”
 

—- D’deridex-class Warbird, Bridge —-

“We have lost over seven hundred officers,” the tactical officer reported.

The entire ship had the feeling of a crew trying not to panic. If it had been her own crew Captain Cruz would have been proud at how well they were holding it together. A majority of the ship was lost, and by all reports power was in short supply.

“Consolidate all remaining crew to the bridge and surrounding rooms, we’ll conserve life support,” Commander Sibolv said. They were, as far as sensor readings could tell, in a corridor of energy flying from one place to another. Yet without studying they had no idea where they were going they were just being pulled along, shorn from their propulsion systems.

“T’Rala, see to the wounded,” Cruz ordered to be helpful, though in all honesty she knew the medical officer would have done so anyway.

“Yes Ma’am,” Doctor T’Rala nodded heading off to treat the Romulan survivors.

It took some doing but soon the bridge was packed with Romulans, many suffering cuts and burns from the attack and subsequent damage to the ship. They rested in shifts, not that there was anything to be done but Sibolv (reasonably in Cruz’s view) wanted posts manned anyway.

Cruz finally lay down on a spot on the floor and closed her eyes, trying to catch a few hours of sleep. She awoke to a commotion.

“We’ve exited the anomaly, we’re trying to determine where we are,” Doctor T’Rala explained to the Captain helping her to her feet. Cruz tugged at her uniform to straighten it.

“Stars match nothing in our charts,” a Romulan reported from a station.

Sibolv nodded, “Captain Cruz do you recognize anything?”

Cruz glanced at the viewscreen and shook her head, “I don’t have the Luna’s stellar catorgraphy memorized but the stars don’t look like those from Earth.”

“There is a planet, class M,” the science officer(?) reported, and on the screen a large planet loomed.

Sibolv nodded, “Prepare to abandon ship.”

“Is that wise?” Cruz asked.

“I don’t have an engineering bay, we’re surviving on batteries that will burn out in a few days. With no propulsion we’re not making it to another planet, so if this one supports life we have no choice,” Sibolv said, clearly not accustomed to being second guessed on his own ship.

Not able to argue with that logic Cruz nodded and headed to an escape pod along with Doctor T’Rala and a team of Romulans.
 

—- USS Luna, Briefing Room —-
 

“We seem to be in underspace,” the Vulcan scientist said.

“Underspace?” Commander Carrillo asked, and repeated.

Sverin nodded, “By agreement with the Turei Starfleet has been using it to explore far away reaches of the universe. This however is a new fissure, and we do not know if it is stable.”

“Were does it lead?” Carrillo asked.

“We do not know, as you did not wait for the probe to report back,” Sverin pointed out.

“Damage to the ship?” Carrillo asked Chief Engineer James Young.

“We have a lot of damage from the debris we flew through, but the Luna-class is meant to be repaired on the go. So I’ll have to handle it. But right now weapon systems are down as are communication,” Young said, adding, “Repair time might be a few weeks though.”

Chief of Security Lieutenant Jara shook her head, “We may need weapons before that. We don’t know who’s back yard we’re going to, and our last readings from our side of this… whatever… showed the Klingons starting to follow us. It stands to reason that they want to finish the job.”

“No firing on the Klingons, but yes I’d rather deal with them fully armed and ready to negotiate than unarmed,” Carrillo said. She sighed. It was clear that she may have jumped to fast but the life of the Captain was at risk. Now though they might have just committed the lives of the full crew to this cause.

Turning to Chief Science Officer Gabriella Miller she said, “Miller find out what your team can about this portal. Why’d it suddenly open and how long can we rely on it to get home. Young, get the Luna working. Jara we don’t know what’s waiting for us, but we need to be ready. Okay team dismissed.”

Leaving Captain Cruz’s Ready Room the First Officer nodded to the pilot, “Lambert walk with me. You’re off duty now?”

“I am Ma’am,” Lambert said. Though they were engaged they had agreed to follow the rigorous rules of their roles while on duty.

In the turbolift Carrillo sighed, visibly deflating, “I made a mistake Pierre.”

He shrugged, “You did what you thought right in the moment to save a friend, your captain, and a crew member. We don’t know if it’s a mistake yet. Besides I’ve been reading about the USS Voyager, I’m anxious to try slowly to get home from far away.”

“You’re too optimistic sometimes,” Carrillo said.

“I got thrown into the future, another part of the universe doesn’t scary me,” Lambert said.

 

—- Planet Surface —-

 

There were emergency supplies, including cold weather gear in the escape pod. Captain Cruz distributed it to the Romulans, and then put on her own coat from the stock stuffing the pockets with emergency flares and rations. She grabbed one of the survival kits and followed the others out of the hatch.

“How many do we have?” Commander Sibolv shouted, his pod had arrived a few minutes before. About ten dotting the landscape nearby.

“We have just under one hundred survivors thus far,” the man, who Cruz had assumed was a science officer, reported.

“An entire D’deridex-class warbird and we have one hundred survivors?” Sibolv cursed, saying a word that was untranslatable from Romulan.

“It’s about Fate’s Mother,” T’Rala said to Cruz quietly.

“We should move,” Cruz said, “Find shelter, we have a few days worth of rations, but not much else.”

“Take what you can from the pods and let us go, towards those hills,” Sibolv pointed.

The group fell into a long line two abreast as they headed across ice fields. Cruz found herself having to carefully pick out her steps, not wanting to be the one that fell or lagged back.

“So you got a new ship while I was away,” T’Rala asked, eager to talk to a human again, and catch up.

“Yeah the USS Luna, have you seen a Luna-class?” Cruz said.

“No, I’m used to the Rhode Island-class and Galaxy class,” T’Rala said.

“Same over all style to a Galaxy class but smaller inside,” Cruz said.

“I don’t love these new ships without carpeting,” T’Rala observed.

Overhearing the doctor and the human captain talking about the interior decorating of Starfleet ships Sibolv scoffed, “Who cares about carpeting.”

“I’m sorry if everything isn’t sharp and pointy like on a Romulan ship,” Doctor T’Rala said.

“Function over form,” Sibolv said.

“And whose ship just blew up,” Cruz asked.

The Romulan commander made another untranslatable statement about the Klingons and marched to the front of the line leaving the Starfleet Captain and her Romulan doctor to themselves for now.

004: The Kirk Of It All

Unknown
2401

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

 

The USS Luna came through the anomaly and stopped. With their main sensors down the chance that they could run headlong into something was greater than zero, and so they launched the runabout Apollo to guide them. It helped them take up a position to the side of the head of the Romulan warbird that was now floating in space a drift and cut off from the rest of its ship.

Aboard the runabout was Lieutenant Junior Grade Thomas Winfield and Lieutenant Pierre Lambert.

With the Luna’s sensors down they took to surveying the ship.

“No life signs,” Lambert reported to the Luna, which had managed to fix short range communications.

“Check the escape pods. Until I see a body we’re assuming Captain Cruz is alive,” came Commander Olivia Carrillo’s voice through the comm system of the runabout.

Winfield stood, “I’ll suit up for a space walk.”

Aboard the Romulan vessel he found about a hundred dead Romulans but no human captain. He also found the escape pods were all used.

“I’m going to say Cruz is alive,” he radioed Lambert. Adding, “Escape pods have been deployed. I’ll get back and we’ll figure out where they went.”

On the bridge Carrillo was going through a lengthy explanation of time physics, particularly how it seemed that despite entering the Underspace only moments before them the Romulan ship was likely here for hours or even longer.

“So how long has gone by?” Carrillo asked.

“We don’t know. Not so much that the team on the Apollo reported long term signs of aging with either the ships or the bodies on it, but long enough that the escape pods were fired,” said Assistant Chief Science Officer Lieutenant Commander Keyana Mason who had taken over lead of this mission as Gabriella Miller was more suited to biology and botany.

“Okay, we’ll get the Apollo to lead us into orbit around the nearest world,” Carrillo said, “Can we hail them?”

“Negative,” the answer came from Chief Engineer Young, he shook his head, “We have short range communication, but we’ll need to deploy ships to search. Shuttles and runabout. We’ll need to use the Apollo as a way point, essentially they hail the Apollo and then the Apollo hails the Luna.”

“What are the chances they’ve survived?” Carrillo said of the warbird and its passangers.

Gabriella Miller took this question, “It’s likely they were alive, at least least at some point. Winfield did not find the Romulan Commander or Captain Cruz.”

“What do we know about the planet?” Carrillo asked.

“Initial scans from the Apollo show it’s habited, but likely not by intelligent life,” Miller said, “There are no artificial structures or pollution of any significant amount. We’re far enough from the system’s sun that the planet is largely covered in ice, with the atmosphere being oxygenated by a narrow bank of tropical weather around the equator. Essentially think of Earth with two poles and about five hundred miles north and south of the Amazon.”

“Pr’Nor coordinate our flights to search,” Carrillo said, adding, “I want a pilot, science officer and security team member on each flight. Jara you have the Apollo and you’ll need to use that for defense at the moment, at least until we get weapon systems back online. Young fix the damn ship. Okay any questions?”

There were no questions from the senior staff and so the meeting broke and Carrillo sighed, heading back to her quarters. She had slept fitfully up until that point, too worried about everything. She knew that she had to step up and captain the ship, but in her heart she wanted Cruz back.

Passing Lambert in the hallway she stopped her fiancé, “You back from the Apollo?”

“I am, I’m off for a few hours then back to fly a shuttle down,” Lambert said.

Carrillo dragged him towards her room, tugging on his arm, “I need tucking in for a few hours.”

Lambert nodded, “As you wish.”

In her room Carrillo kissed him, the First Officer needing something to distract her mind from the weight of the Luna which was currently on it. Then she pulled him towards the shower, fitted with an old water shower and not the more modern sonic showers. There they both washed up and then collapsed with exhaustion on her mattress, falling asleep within minutes.

 

—- Planet’s Surface —-

 

Lieutenant Junior Grade William Hume stepped out of the shuttle, and ran a scan. The Vulcan Lieutenant Setiv followed him out and she promptly also began scanning, as if uncertain if he’d pick up a signal if there was one.

“Anything?” Winfield shouted from the pilot’s seat of the shuttle.

Hume’s feet crunched of ice as he took some steps away and then he shook his head, “One life sign, too big to be either human or Romulan.”

“He is correct,” Setiv said.

“Alright back on board, let’s trying again,” Winfield said.

 

In another hemisphere Captain Adriana Cruz yelled at the giant beast trying to distract it. A mammal of some kind, it was the size of three shuttle craft welded together, and had razor sharp teeth and claws. It had burst through the snow and into the centre of their ranks biting into a Romulan and swallowing the poor soul in one gulp.

Cruz was unarmed but had thrown a flare hoping to scare it off. The lit flare had managed to bounce off the beast’s hide to no effect. It now laid sputtering and burning on the ground, as the creature snapped at fleeing Romulans to try to fill its belly.

Commander Sibolv grabbed her arm and yanked her off her feet, away from the creature, “There’s caves this way.”

“Could be its lair,” Doctor T’Rala observed.

“Size does not match, the creature is bigger than the openings,” Sibolv said, releasing Cruz he lit his own flair and began to gesture towards the caves trying to direct the remaining Romulans there.

“What do we have to lose,” T’Rala said, taking off running.

Cruz followed suit and soon the Romulans were too, heading towards the caves, as the monster snapped at them, catching another in its jaws.

There were a series of caves and Cruz and T’Rala scrambled into one, ducking low to try to disappear into the darkness. They could hear the Romulans entering caves around them, but nobody else came to their cave until right at the end when Commander Sibolv dove in, the creature snapping at him digging to try to get into the cave.

“Stuck with us humans,” T’Rala joked.

“You are not a human,” Sibolv said.

“I like hot dogs,” T’Rala replied, a sign Cruz thought that all humanity boiled down to liking one kind of meat in a bun.

“I do not know that that is,” Sibolv said.

“And you call yourself a spy,” Cruz laughed and fell back against the wall, exhausted.

“I do not call myself a spy,” Sibolv said, “I am one.”

“We’ve got some time to kill, tell us your story,” Cruz said.

Sibolv was quiet then nodded, perhaps figuring that the chances of surviving this were so low that there was little harm in being candid with the two Starfleet officers. Finally he nodded, “My father was a good man, a kind one. But he was part of Spock’s reunification movement, a fact that I reported as a child to a teacher. My father was arrested, and interned.”

“Prison,” T’Rala said.

Sibolv nodded, “The Tal Shiar has become my family. I was rewarded for my loyalty, and my father’s loss was my gain. I do still regret what happened to him.”

“I’m sorry,” Cruz said, “I never knew my father. He left me a half-brother and a winery.”

T’Rala shrugged, “My father is still around, he plays soccer in his spare time. And sun baths.”

Sibolv shook his head, “I understood your parents were killed.”

“My human father. I never knew my Romulan parents,” she said. Doctor T’Rala looked at Cruz and grinned, “Hey remember when Kirk and Doctor McCoy were sentenced to Rura Penthe? This is just like that, does that make me your Doctor McCoy?”

Cruz shrugged, “I guess so.”

“What is your obsession with Kirk? He was a failed Admiral?” Sibolv asked.

“He beat the Romulans a lot, and the Klingons,” T’Rala said.

Cruz tried a more diplomatic explanation, “He saved the Federation on a few occasions, and was one of the first to go out and explore space. Sure the Vulcans had done a lot, but Kirk pushed the boundaries and he always had a good time doing it. The fact is I’m still confident that we’re going to get out of this, if only because of Kirk. He got out of things like this, and so will we.”

Sibolv shook his head, “Kirk is no longer living. He will not save us.”

“Humans are too stupid to give up,” T’Rala said, “That’s the appeal of Kirk. He was too stupid to know something was impossible, and so he did it anyway.”

“And so will Commander Carrillo,” Cruz said.

005: Repairs

Unknown
2401

—- USS Luna, Engineering —-
 

Lieutenant Commander James Young was having a long day. A day that had gone on for approximately forty-nine hours thus far. To his left Lieutenant Junior Grade Kv’skrkks was pulling out a tray of isolinear chips and to his right Lieutenant Murf was hitting something with a sonic screwdriver in a rhythmic pattern.

“Is it just me of is it loud in here?” Young asked the Chief Engineer feeling finally dead on his feet.

His Assistant Chief Engineering Officer Ensign Vanessa Constable looked up from her copy of Starfleet’s technical manual for the Luna-class and shrugged, “More banging than usual maybe?”

Kv’skrkks leaned back on his tail, the Pahkwa-thanhian officer using his powerful hind legs to pull the tray out, sending iaolinear chips scattering along the floor. Murf stopped her banding to help the Velicoraptor lookalike crew member gather up the fallen chips.

One of the only people who did not have a great deal of work to do to get the USS Luna back up and running was Chief Diplomatic Officer Diya Acharya. Unless they suddenly encountered new life, and intelligent life at that, she had little to nothing to contribute other than as a kind of moral officer, though that fell to the counseling department. If Commander Carrillo called upon her for help dealing with the Klingons, she’d be sure to help, but overall the Commander seemed to have a handle on what she was dong.

Thus Acharya entered main engineering to find Young with his head in his hands, and the place in a kind of organized chaos that was beyond her. She made her way over to the section chief and his assistant and smiled.

“You off?” Acharya asked Young.

“No,” he answered.

“Yes,” Constable answered for him. She explained, “He’s been working for days solid, he needs a rest.”

Acharya had learned that Young had to be dragged from his engineering department at times, particularly when something was not right with the USS Luna. He took responsibility for everything on the ship and how well it worked. While the Luna-class ship was not as technologically flakey as the Rhode Island-class that Young had previously served on he still did not like seeing it not working and with sensors, communications, and weapon systems offline he had to race against time to get them back to ensure Commander Carrillo had everything she needed.

With another push from Constable the Chief Engineering Officer sighed, “Fine, I’ll take a shift off. Get some sleep.”

Murf was now examining the isolinear chips as she put them back in their tray.

“We’ll try to muddle along without you,” Constable said, half teasing giving him a shove towards the nearest turbolift.

 

—- USS Luna, Tranquility Base —-

The lounge was mostly quiet, save for a few officers off duty but most everyone was either working overtime or sleeping. All small craft had begun search and rescue operations down to the planet’s surface, and even the Captain’s Yatch had been pressed into service. They had been taken somewhere unknown and had lost their captain and now had to figure out what saving her looked like.

He took a seat while Lieutenant Acharya got the drinks. She joined him at a table, quiet and isolated. There were not many in the lounge to overhear their conversation anyway.

“So Doctor T’Rala is back,” Acharya said, not adding the caveat that the doctor was lost currently with Captain Cruz, “How do you feel about that?”

Young gave only a small shrug, “I don’t know. I haven’t really dealt with her leaving months ago. We broke up when she left, she insisted. I don’t know what’ll happen.”

Acharya had been trying to drag Young out of his engine room and into the rest of his life since then. She didn’t know the Romulan doctor, but she knew that Young was not the most in touch with his own feelings. Being a brilliant engineer was not the same as being in touch with your inner feelings.

Acharya nodded, she was empathetic, and while that might not fix starships she did have soft skills to guide her in cases like this.

“And if there was someone else involved?” she asked.

Young studied his drink cup, “I don’t know. I know about how you feel, and I feel the same way but I just haven’t processed everything yet. I feel like I’m still rebooting emotionally from everything.”

“The thing is people aren’t engines, we don’t have the luxury of turning it off and then turning it back on again to see if it’ll solve anything,” she said, “I don’t want to put time constraints on you or anything but we’re going to find the Captain and T’Rala and then you’ll probably need to decide where you stand.”

Young reached across the table, placing his hand on hers. It was soft and warm. He nodded, “I know, and I know I’ve been difficult. I’ll sort this out, soon.”

Acharya smiled, “Okay now finish up your drink and let’s get you to bed.”

 

—- Planetside —-

 

Captain Adriana Cruz slowly peered out of the cave then inched out of it. It had been several hours since they’d scattered and hid in the cave and if the USS Luna had followed them, and was trying to find them then they had to be out in the open and not hiding yet the danger presented by the beast had been pinning them down.

She had not boarded the Romulan ship with a tricorder, but had taken a Romulan version from the escape pod. Operation was different, but she managed to get something if she did a scan for power sources. There was one off in the distance, so she tried recalibrating the tricorder to broadcast an energy pulse that would look unnatural on the natural world. She was focused on doing that when she heard motion.

Turning Cruz saw the creature, jaws open wide and she lept to the side. Teeth raked at her leg, cutting through the winter garments that she had taken from the escape pod. Blood covered the snow. She tried running back to the cave but as soon as she put pressure on her injured leg it gave way and she fell. She heard shouting and saw Doctor T’Rala and Sibolev the Romulan Commander coming out of the cave. Sibolev lit a flare and distracted the creature, while T’Rala grabbed Cruz and dragged her back to the safety of the cave. A moment later Sibolev returned.

“That was brave human,” he said, “And stupid.”

“I don’t have my equipment, it’s still on the Seattle,” T’Rala said.

Cruz gritted her teeth in pain as T’Rala pulled back the torn fabric of the winter survival gear and the Starfleet uniform beneath it, “Luna, we’re on the Luna now.”

“Well names aside I don’t have anything,” Doctor T’Rala said examining the wound, “Here Sibolev cut this into strips we’ll have to restrict blood flow to the leg otherwise she’s going to die of blood loss.”

He seemed about to point out that he did not have a knife but then realized that keeping the hidden knife that he always carried a secret was pointless at this point so he produced it and began to work. T’Rala then tied off the leg above the knees preventing Cruz’s blood from passing that.

“Diagnosis doc?” Cruz asked, the pain was making her head spin and she felt unconsciousness coming on.

“If I get a modern med bay I can probably save you. Much more though and you’ll lose the leg,” she said.

“Let’s hope your Commander Carrillo is as reckless as you are,” Sibolev said.

006: Klingons

Unknown
2401

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-


Several things happened at once. Commander Olivia Carrillo sat down with a cup of coffee in the central command chair usually reserved for the captain when the runabout the Apollohailed. The Luna was still fixing their comm systems, as well as sensors, weapons, and engines, so only internal and short range communications were open. To help co-ordinate the search of the planet below for their captain, and the rest of the Romulans, they had deployed the Apolloto simulate the ship’s sensors. They weren’t as sensitive as the Luna’s usually were, but it was better than being blind.

“This is Carrillo,” the Commander said as Lieutenant Claudia Jara’s face appeared. The Chief of Security looked concerned, “Ma’am the Klingons have arrived the same battle cruiser that destroyed the Romulan Bird of Prey. Also one of the shuttles may have found Captain Cruz but I don’t have details yet.”

Carrillo nodded, and tapped her commbadge, “Lieutenant Diya Acharya, this is the bridge, please report to a transporter room to beam over to the Apollo. I need you to stall the Klingons, at any cost.”

“Got it Commander,” the reply came from Carrillo’s badge.

Carrillo turned back to the screen, “I’m sending over Lieutenant Ahcharya. Do anything you can to stall the Klingons. They’ll want to start blasting Romulans and we need our medical officer and captain back. Obviously we can’t threaten them, but if you have to threaten them then do that.”

“So don’t threaten them, but maybe threaten them?” Jara asked.

Carrillo nodded, “Exactly.”

Jara glanced down, “The Luna itself might be a threat to them, but a runabout I might as well get out and spit at their shields.”

“If you think that would help,” Carrillo said.
 

—- USS Luna, Briefing Room —-


Commander Carrillo took the seat at the head of the illuminated table and nodded at the senior crew or their Assistant Chief officers who were in attendance. With some on the planet conducting the search for Captain Cruz and some in the Apollo doing their best to delay the Klingons, there were a few gaps in the staffing.

“Okay, let’s try to keep this brief. Updates the Klingons are here and we may have a lead on the Captain. Both situations are developing, so engineering when will anything on the ship work?” Carrillo asked.

Lieutenant Murf shook her head, “Not soon. We’ll have communications back in about twelve hours, weapons maybe in twenty.”

“Sorry who are you?” Carrillo asked.

“She’s Lieutenant Murf,” Chief Assistant Engineering Officer Ensign Vanessa Constable said, “Lieutenant Commander Young hadn’t slept for several days and so we sent him to take a nap when you called this meeting.”

“Okay, so how do I deal with Klingons without weapons of any kind?” Carrillo asked.

“Bluff?” Constable suggested, she gestured at the schematics that came up on the table in front of everyone, “We can cycle power through the systems giving the illusion that we have working weapons. We could have them look like they work to scans in about two hours.”

Carrillo sighed, “Okay I’m not loving the plan of bluffing the Klingons, but let’s do it. Making us seem like we have weapons is a priority now. Next where the hell are we?”

Lieutenant Scchhttt’aaakkk was on a monitor from the pool that he swam in. He looked out at the camera nearby and let out a series of chirps which the computer translated for his non-dolphin crew mates.

“We appear to be on the edge of Romulan space, likely deep in the Beta Quadrent. We’ll need Romulans to confirm, but we are probably about three years at top warp from Romulan territory. Then another one or two before we hit Federation space where we left,” he said.

“So not Voyager far, but pretty dang far,” Carrillo said. She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose, “Once we have sensors start plotting a course home. What’s the status of the anomaly and can it take us home quicker?”

The Vulcan scientist Lieutenant Setiv nodded, “Passage through both ends of underspace is possible. This is thus far behaving like any passageway we’ve studied through there.”

“What’s the worst case scenario, given that the Klingons have proven that they’ll do the thing that most annoys us,” Carrillo said.

“It would not be logical to do so, but a torpedo could collapse the tunnel. It would trap the Klingons here as well, so I do not know why they would,” Setiv pointed out.

Carrillo nodded, “Are Klingons logical Lieutenant.”

The Vulcan considered this, “No, they do not appear to be.”

Carrillo stood and nodded to the officers assembled, “Alright let’s get the captain home and get ourselves out of Dodge.”

—- Planetside —-

 

With the Apollo up in orbit, acting as the eyes and ears of the USS Luna, the Ranger was the other runabout that had tried to get near the series of caves where one of the shuttles had detected an energy surge that might have been Captain Cruz. The trouble was a hairy beast with razor sharp fangs was jealously guarding the cave system and had reacted to the arrival of the small craft.

Ten shuttles, and the runabout had landed about ten kilometers away to discuss the issue.

“We’ll use the Ranger’s weapons to hold off the creature, land the other shuttles and get everyone out,” said Lieutenant Commander Tashai who was ranking officer on the scene.

“Surely the Prime Directive doesn’t apply to non-intelligent life,” argued Lieutenant Pierre Lambert.

“If you want to go give it an intelligence test be my guest, but we’re not here to fly around the galaxy killing every new species we encounter,” Tashai said, “We don’t know how many Romulans are left alive, but we take everyone. No one gets left behind.”

The crew agreed and Lambert climbed into the cockpit of the Ranger, and the runabout and all shuttles took off. They were all named after missions, and ships vital in setting a man on Earth’s moon with names like Explorer, Kosmos, and Soyuz. As they approached the creature Lambert fired phases on low intensity, enough force to push the beast back but not to do any real damage. As he staffed the creature, driving it back and away from the tunnels the others landed and began to shepherd a hundred Romulans from the caves.

Doctor T’Rala came out covered in blood that was red and thus not Romulan, “Captain Cruz is in here, I’ll need help carrying her.”

Tashai entered to see a one legged captain unconscious on the ground.

“I had to,” T’Rala said, “the leg was infected. That creature has a kind of poison. I need to get her to sickbay.”

Without further discussion the pair lifted her onto a floating stretcher and guided it to the shuttle Zond. Loading it in the shuttle kicked up snow as it took off, five Romulans piling on as well as the Starfleet doctor and the crew assigned to it.

Tashai contacted the other ships, “We have all Romulans, and the Captain. Everyone back to the Luna.”

The question was what would the Klingons do.
 

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-


Lieutenant Murf nodded, “We can relay you through the Apollo, allowing you to talk directly to the Klingons.”

Carrillo did not want to talk to the Klingons but her Chief Diplomatic Officer was reporting that they were getting fed up with dealing with a couple of Lieutenants in a runabout.

“Can you give me power to the weapons, so it looks like we’re armed?” Carrillo asked.

Murf nodded, hitting a few keys on the Engineering Console, “Doing that now.”

“Open a channel,” Carrillo said, “Hail the Klingons.”

Klar the previous First Officer of the USS Luna appeared and grinned. The Klingon had gained fame in the Empire through killing Romulans and now a whole fleet of them were coming his way on the Luna’s shuttles.

“You brought me a shooting gallery, thank you commander,” Klar said.

“Firing on a Starfleet shuttle would be an act of war,” Carrillo pointed out.

“Not when you’re lost in space,” Klar said, “By the time you get back home, there’s not going to be a Romulan alive and nobody will care about a few Starfleet officers who got in the way.”

“You were the XO, you know the Luna still packs a punch. You might out gun us, but you won’t be able to stop us,” Carrillo said.

“Stop you what?” Klar laughed.

“From collapsing the way home. Tactical power up weapons and lock on to the anomaly,” Carrillo said, “Now do you want to spend ten years unable to celebrate your victory? Which of us will have the more comfortable flight home? Do you really want to be stranded on the far side of Romulan space?”

Klar looked uncertain, then he growled, “We will hold fire for now. But we will expect those Romulans be handed over.”

The screen switched back to the image of the planet below and the small ships slowly approaching. Carillo sighed and collapsed in her chair, bluffing having taken its toll.

“Engineering,” she said, “Get me some weapons. Even if you have to weld hand phasers to the hull.”

007: Just For Tonight

Unknown
2401

—- USS Luna, Medical Bay —-

The dreams had been kept at bay by the sedation. It was not until natural sleep had taken the baton and Captain Adriana Cruz had drifted out of the medically induced coma that she felt it. The worst of it had happened while she was out, either because she had been rendered unconscious in the field, or because she’d been kept sedated until she was stabilized once back aboard the USS Luna.

Her leg felt on fire. Woozy she sat up and with blurry eyes she examined it, finding that it was not the leg that she knew. It was not her leg.

“You’re up,” observed Lieutenant Junior Grade Doctor Thomas Elordi setting down the PADD that he had been reading and crossing the medical bay to run a medical tricorder up and down the captain’s body to confirm that she was indeed awake.

“What happened?” Cruz asked, still bleary from the events.

“The creature had a poison,” Elordi explained, “And Doctor T’Rala found it… Well your leg had to be removed. We are waiting on your body to heal more, than we’ll work on what’s next.”

Cruz looked down and realized that what she thought was her leg was indeed a fake one, a kind of lightweight polymer.

“We have some cybernetic options, and perhaps organically regrowing something,” Elordi said. He would have broken it to her gentler or allowed her to remain in the dark until fully healed, but there was not much way to hide that you no longer had a full limb.

“Why does it hurt, if I don’t have it?” Cruz asked.

The young doctor nodded, “Phantom pains are common. You may have some kind of pain in your leg the rest of your life. I can sedate you if you’d like?”

“Were’s Doctor T’Rala?” Cruz asked, waving off the offer of a sedative, “Asleep. The Romulan survivors have been given quarters in the VIP areas of the ship. We are repairing everything, but nothing is fixed yet. The Klingons are demanding we hand over the Romulans and so far we’ve managed to bluff our way out of danger.”

As the Assistant Chief Medical Officer Elordi had been involved in all the discussions given that until the shuttles with the survivors had returned he’d been the acting Chief of the department.

Cruz fell back onto the medical bed, and head a hiss of a hypospray.

“In the morning I’ll make sure Commander Carrillo stops by to talk, but for now you need rest,” the doctor said.

Cruz looked up at him wanting to argue but she was too tired to, the sedative acting quickly to numb her real and phantom pains and send her back into the darkness of a dreamless sleep.

Despite the fact that Commander Olivia Carrillo had only been awake for about thirty minutes she already looked, and felt tired. Entering the medical bay she spotted her captain on a diagnostic bed being seen to by Doctor T’Rala who nodded as she approached. T’Rala had already been gone to administer care to the Romulan colony by the time that Carrillo had been assigned to the USS Luna, and so she didn’t know the woman having only briefly met her the day before.

Cruz was awake though clearly the worse for wear, having had her leg removed and with minor frostbite from the planet’s surface.

“Captain,” Commander Carrillo nodded, she tried to lighten the mood, “I was going to mention before you left, I really didn’t like your leg anyway.”

Cruz nodded, not quite in the mood for jokes, but understanding the need to make things lighter, “Funny, I was a bit attached to it.”

Doctor T’Rala nodded, “I’ll leave you two, don’t rile her up any. She’s not cleared to return to duty.”

When the Doctor had left Cruz leaned back against the elevated back of the medical bed and sighed, “So how is it?”

“Well I’m glad you’re alive, first off because you’re my friend, and secondly I don’t know how you dealt with this Klar character but he’s being a pain in my butt,” Carrillo said of the ship’s previous XO who had been a member of the Klingon Defense Force that had been assigned as part of the First Officer exchange program to the USS Luna.

“I was young,” Cruz said in her defense.

“It was only a few months ago,” Carrillo said.

Cruz shrugged, “What’s going on?”

“We hit headlong into the debris from the Romulan warbird and are still dealing with the damage. We have comms and sensors back now but weapons will be at least ten hours. Klar wants us to hand over the Romulans and only isn’t firing on the ship because we’re bluffing him that we’ll destroy the only way back,” Carrillo explained, “Not that we could even if we wanted to.”

Adriana Cruz wanted to leap from the bed and try to solve the problem herself but she knew that she couldn’t. Not now. Not in her condition. She nodded, “Do what you can, get us home and don’t give up the Romulans. They may be Tal Shiar, but we don’t trade lives.”

Carillo nodded, “You rest up, I’m not ready to be captain yet.”

 

—- USS Luna, Captain’s Ready Room —-

Commander Carrillo looked at the Romulan captain Commander Sibolev not wanting to put up with him. She knew to show him respect, but when she was doing her best to keep the Klingons from killing him, it seemed a little annoying that she had to put up with this.

“Commander I appreciate the rescue but can you not fix your ship faster?” Sibolev said.

“We are going as fast as we can,” Carrillo said, “And I have a Klingon battle cruiser to deal with. They may just destroy us and assume that Starfleet will never know what happened here.”

“Then let my crew help,” Sibolev said, “Let them out of their quarters.”

“You’re a Romulan spy ship, or you were, and I won’t have a bunch of Tal Shiar agents wandering the halls of the Luna trying to discover our secrets. You all have guest quarters, I’m sure you understand.”

“We have been fighting the Klingons now for…” he began.

“And did such a good job that your ship blew up. No, I have enough problems to deal with Commander Sibolev,” Carrillo said, “I don’t need you and your crew adding to them.”

Sibolev’s smile reminded Carrillo of a crocodile’s grinning at its prey. It was just her luck that she had to deal with two antagonists while so far from Starfleet and without the captain being able to pitch in. She nodded and stood heading to the bridge with the Romulan Commander following along.

 

—- USS Luna, Holodeck 1 —-

The simulation ended with the USS Luna exploding, as it had in the three previous attempts. Commander Carrillo picked herself up off the floor as the yellow and black tiled environment replaced the bridge of the Luna-class ship and sighed, glancing at Lieutenant Jara who had been at tactical.

“So is there any scenario where we survive a fight with the Klingons?” Carrillo asked the tactical officer, glancing at Lieutenant Eleanor Dorian the Chief Strategic Operations Officer for some ideas.

Jara winced, “Under the current parameters with a half broken ship, no. The Klingons out arm us, and frankly have less to loose than we do. Klar doesn’t care how many casualties his ship takes, we do.”

Lieutenant Dorian nodded, “He was a real hydrospanner even when he was on our side.”

Carrillo nodded, she needed Young to fix the ship and while she was confident that he was the guy to do it, she needed it done today.

“Any problems with our Tal Shiar guests?” Carrillo asked.

“No,” Jara said, “I have guards patrolling the halls outside their quarters, acting natural but ensuring nobody leaves. They have had computer access in their quarters limited to materials that you can get from a book shop, nothing sensitive. We may want to think about letting them get a holodeck session or two in, if they’re here for awhile.”

“Let’s pretend we’re getting home and worry about what happens if we don’t later,” Carrillo said, “I have enough going on without combining crews right now.”

 

—- USS Luna, First Officers Quarters —-

“Tough day?” Pierre Lambert asked after kissing Olivia Carrillo’s neck, embracing her from behind. She snuggled up against him letting out a low moan of pent up tiredness and exhaustion wanting very much to be in bed by now.

“The toughest,” she confirmed.

They had been very Catholic about their engagement, though both of their families had long since given up the religion. Sharing a bed prior to the wedding was verboten, and while Lambert had no family other than distant great great nephews living, Carrillo had a large one that would be annoyed to learn that their daughter had married without their knowing. Heck they’d be disturbed to know that she was engaged without telling them, though she could get them over that.

Carrillo wanted to correct herself and say that Fleet Day was tougher, but Lambert had not been around for that, so he would not quite understand though he had read about it.

“Can we skip to the honeymoon on Risa?” she asked, not wanting to juggle Klingons, Romulans, and a crew anymore.

Lambert laughed, his fingers toying with her earlobe. He was not familiar with Ferengi, so she refrained from making a joke about their preferences. There was a lot about the universe that after being thrown forward in time the Lieutenant had to learn, and simply reading old logs wouldn’t teach him.

“I should get back,” Lambert said kissing her, “we both have duty in the morning.”

She held onto his hand, not letting him leave, “Stay tonight.”

“But you wanted to wait,” he said, not wanting to pressure her into anything she might regret.

“From the simulations we ran today there’s a very real chance there won’t be a wedding,” Carrillo said, “Just for tonight, okay.”

Lambert nodded kissing her once more, she tasted of vanilla and smelled that way too. She was soft and alive, and yet she was carrying the weight of a starship on her back.

“Just for tonight,” he agreed.

008: Homeward Bound

Unknown / Starbase 86
2401

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

“The Klingons are hailing us,” said Chief Security Officer Lieutenant Claudia Jara who was standing at the tactical console. Her voice was crisp and efficient, they had been waiting on the call, having anticipated it because the Klingon commander Klar had given them a deadline to hand over the Romulan survivors. That deadline had passed, and now he was coming calling.

“What’s the status on weapons and our drive system?” Commander Carrillo asked, wanting to know just how much bluffing this was going to require. They had finally fixed ship to ship communications, the question was whether or not they could do anything beyond beg for mercy.

At the engineering console Lieutenant Murf shook her head, “Lieutenant Commander Young’s doing what he can, but maybe you can fire a phaser once. Or one torpedo. I’d say we can probably do warp seven.”

Even with the general inclination toward conservatism that engineers subscribed to Commander Carrillo did not like that report. While she doubted that in normal circumstances the Klingons would fire upon them, so far away from any witnesses who was to say what had happened to the USS Luna.

“Onscreen,” she said, knowing that she could not delay that much longer.

Klar appeared and grinned at the Luna’s bridge crew, baring his teeth to show his dominance. He took time to chuckle and then addressed Carrillo, “Where is Captain Cruz, you got her back from the planet’s surface.”

It was Carrillo’s turn for bluster, “You’re lucky she’s taking the day off, you get to deal with me. Now I imagine you’re here to apologize for all the bluster and threats and we can both be on our way home.”

Klar laughed, “Your ship is damaged, the weapons systems are down. You’ll do as I say or die.”

Carrillo nodded, then turned to her right and spoke to the science officer on the bridge, Lieutenant Junior Grade Sevrin. Addressing the Vulcan she asked, “Mister Sevrin what would happen if I put a torpedo straight into the anomaly?”

“Unknown, though our best guess if that it would collapse,” Sevrin answered.

“And trap us here?” Carrillo asked.

“Both ships would be trapped,” Sevrin confirmed.

“And Mister Sevrin, how long would it take us to get home?” Carrillo said leading the questioning.

“We are not sure, but given what the Romulans have said, five to seven years at high warp,” Sevrin said.

Carrillo looked at the screen, “Now I haven’t been on a Klingon vessel for a while but I don’t expect they’re that comfortable for five year missions. Also we’re on the far side of Romulan space, we’d have to cross their entire territory. How long could a Klingon ship remain cloaked?”

“You’re bluffing,” Klar said, “You’d never trap yourselves here besides you have no weapons.”

“Lieutenant Jara fire a photon torpedo across the entrance of the anomaly,” Carrillo said.

Jara nodded and confirmed, tiring the single torpedo that they currently had to work with. Now they were unarmed but the goal was to make the Klingons think otherwise. A torpedo lashed out, missing the anomaly and vanishing into space.

“Now we can all go home now, or we can take the long way,” Carrillo said and nodded to Lieutenant Pr’Nor at the conn, “Take us into the anomaly Lieutenant.”

Klar gritted his teeth and ended the transmission.

“Shields up,” Carrillo said, “full speed to the anomaly.”

At tactical Jara looked up, “Klingon battle cruiser is following, but not firing.”

Carrillo nodded, with an unknown chance of the Luna making it back to Federation space the Klingons were unwilling to open fire and break their fragile treaty with the Federation.

“Going to warp,” Pr’Nor reported and the USS Luna entered the anomaly and headed back towards the Triangle.

 

—- Starbase 86, Medical Bay —-

Taking her first step Captain Adriana Cruz winced in pain. One would have thought the advantage of having a newly installed cybernetic leg was that unlike her previous flesh and blood one, this one could not feel pain. Nobody had told her, at least not before being attacked by a monster on an ice planet, that she’d have phantom pains of her old organic leg.

A tall slender Romulan entered as Commander Sibolev of the Tal Shiar entered the medical bay and seeing Cruz taking her first steps he headed over. He nodded at the Starfleet captain.

“I wish to thank you for your crew’s hospitality over the past few days,” Sibolev said.

“Least we could do,” Cruz said.

“No you could have left us on the planet for the Klingons,” Sibolev said, “I even understand your Commander Carrillo faced down a Klingon.”

“Maybe you could have been nicer to her,” Cruz smiled, “But yes, that’s the Kirk in us. Doing what’s right. Even if it made him a failed admiral, as you say.”

“When we meet again, I will take that into consideration,” Sibolev said.

“That we do what’s right?” Cruz asked.

“No, that you are insane,” Sibolev said, “Our transport is here. This is good bye for now Cruz.”

“Why does everything you say make me feel like you’ll stab me in the back later?” Cruz said, only half joking.

“Because I likely will,” Sibolev said and then nodded his farewell and headed out of the sickbay.