“Captain’s log stardate, six-one-eight-nine-seven-point-five-four. It’s still weird to consider myself the captain of the Trinity. Only a few weeks ago I was the operations officer with the responsibility of being second officer, now I’ve been catapulted into the big chair. Being responsible for over five-hundred and fifty souls is not something that I was expecting to be doing so quickly. The ship is currently docked at Deep Space Nineteen undergoing minor repairs. While we are here I need to pick a new first officer, complete the advanced bridge exam and prepare the funerals for Captain Adelaide and Commander Cole. However, before I do any of that, I have been summoned by Fleet Admiral Duncan. The man who made me a captain.”

Walking alone along the long corridors of the Unity-class starbase, Captain James Preston McCallister kept on tugging on the ends of his sleeves and pulling on his collar. His new uniform felt quite tight around him. His friend, and hopeful new first officer, Commander Romen Corbin, had mentioned that James looked a lot better in red and that it made him look fierce. Not knowing how to take that from the Betazoid counsellor, James ignored it as he didn’t feel fierce or intimidating in any shape of form. Since his battlefield promotion to captain, his nerve had resided on the surface and he found himself on more than one occasion having to take several deep breaths to keep his cool and composure. He hoped he didn’t have to do that too much in front of his superior. Nevertheless, walking the corridors of the admiral’s home, he himself felt a bit intimidated by how superior the station imposed itself to its visitors. It’s huge presence both internally and externally showed everyone that it was built to last and would probably need a whole fleet of warships to take it out. 

Deep Space 19 had been one of the first batches of its class built by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Located on the remotest frontiers of Federation space in the Beta Quadrant, it was one of the few bases this far out that supported many deep space assignments. Being almost brand new meant that the station appeared to be glimmering as it orbited above the Federation colony on Kovar Prime. Every corridor smelt brand new too, almost like freshly cut pines with a hint of lavender. Well that’s what James thought as he left the docking ring to take a turbolift up to the station’s command center. 

Calling out for “Ops” as he got into the cart, James grasped his hands together as he tried to get rid of his nerves before meeting with Fleet Admiral Luke Duncan. The flag officer was the current commanding officer of the fourth fleet, even though his rank and position was high in the chain of command, James had never once felt that Duncan was a formidable character. Quite the contrary in fact. During the Beta Cartel campaign, which had led to James’ promotion, Duncan had headed Starfleet’s efforts in removing the criminal organisation’s efforts to destabilise relations between the Federation and Klingon Empire. Duncan’s tactical scheming and diplomatic guile was a massive contributing factor to Starfleet’s victory. His use of intelligence gathering and application of local knowledge had assisted too. It was no surprise that Starfleet had given him their rapid response fleet to command, nevertheless he was one of the few approachable and supportive members of the admiralty that James had encountered. 

The turbolift came to a halt and the dark silver doors parted allowing for the Trinity’s captain to step out into the command centre of Deep Space 19. It was a busy place. The room itself was huge and every station was being manned if not by one person but at least two or three officers. Walking past some consoles, James looked around and soon saw the admiral standing on the upper deck. 

Fleet Admiral Luke Duncan was a tall man with slightly broad shoulders, for a man in his late fifties he looked extremely well. His black hair was combed neatly into a reasonable smart manner. A strong jawline and piercing blue eyes complimented his entire look of a strong leader. The edging of several lines and the dash of some grey hairs showed the man had years of experience. His admiral’s uniform sat comfortable on his frame.  

Duncan appeared to be saying goodbye to a much younger man who was wearing a blue teal uniform with the rank of lieutenant. The two of them hugged goodbye and then the science officer in question walked down a small flight of stairs to the level that James was on. His appearance was almost different to the admiral’s. A youthful bob in his stride along with thick brown hair that was styled into an almost brushed back quiff style made him an almost contrast to the flag officer. McCallister exchanged looks with the lieutenant as they passed one another. Keen pale blue eyes rounded off his young handsome look.

Catching the admiral’s eye, Duncan gestured for James to join him where he was. Climbing the staircase, James reached the admiral.Extending his hand out, the friendly flag officer welcomed him. 

“It’s good to see you again James.” Duncan said in a solid English accent. James had heard that Duncan’s family had long roots in British military history and that one of the admiral’s ancestors came from nobility. It didn’t surprise James if it was true as Fleet Admiral Duncan came across as the perfect gentleman. 

“Thank you sir, likewise.” McCallister returned with a similar cordial grin. 

“Sorry about that.” Duncan remarked towards the man he just said goodbye to. “That’s my son, he has just been promoted to lieutenant and made the chief counsellor and chief diplomatic officer on board the USS Charlton, a Galaxy-class ship. They’re about to head out to the Talvath Cluster for a long-term mapping mission.”

“Oh wow, he must be excited.” McCallister replied as he looked down at Duncan’s son. He couldn’t see the connection as the younger man didn’t look a thing like his father. “I did think his pips look extra shiny.”

Chuckling at McCallister’s remarks, Duncan stretched his right arm out towards his office, indicating for McCallister to follow him into his private area. As they entered it there was a woman waiting for them sitting on one of the armchairs. Her back was to the door so when it opened she turned her head to greet both men with a warm smile. McCallister felt like he knew her from somewhere. Wearing a red command uniform with four pips on her collar, McCallister recognised her as someone who was in pictures on the admiral’s desk. 

“Captain McCallister, this is my wife: Captain Nicola Duncan.” Admiral Duncan introduced her as. 

“It’s certainly a family affair here on Deep Space Nineteen.” McCallsiter stated as he moved to address her. 

The admiral just nodded in agreement with his assessment. 

Nicola stood up to greet her fellow captain, still smiling as she shook his hand. “A pleasure to meet you, Captain McCallister. Please let me pass on my condolences to you and the crew of the Trinity for your recent losses. Captain Adelaide was a fine officer and was someone I had the pleasure of serving under many years ago.”

Appreciating the gesture, James just shook her hand and thanked her for her kind comments. The admiral then indicated for him to take a seat on the black leather sofa that sat along the left side wall. After sitting down, the admiral took the armchair that was opposite to the one that Nicola was back in. 

Looking nervously between the two of them, James felt like he was about to be told off, so he decided to break the silence. “You both must be very proud of your son.”

Nicola smiled in agreement. “We are.”

James looked at her and still couldn’t work out how the man the admiral had just said was his son was related to her either. Deciding he couldn’t bear the further silence anymore he spoke up and realised he should have remained quiet afterwards. “I feel like I’ve been summoned to the principal’s office.” He remarked and winced inwards. 

Chuckling slightly at that, Nicola shook her head. “Don’t worry James, you’ve not done anything wrong.”

“Indeed.” confirmed Luke as he pushed his admiral’s belt down a bit to make himself comfortable. “Unfortunately we need to brief you on a matter that you would have been told before taking command and being made a captain.”

“Oh?” James pondered what they were about to say.

“Computer, seal the doors to this room. No entry without my authorisation.” Luke ordered with a firm tone.

The computer beeped in response as it locked the only entrance into the office. The other door led to a small private bathroom for the admiral. The windows that looked over D-S-Nineteen’s command centre that missed up, not allowing anyone to see in either.  “Doors are sealed.” The computer said.

Realising that whatever he was about to be briefed on was probably quite serious, James sat up and remained still like a frozen statue.

“James, what we’re about to share with you is one of the Federation’s biggest secrets and is highly classified. Only captains and flag officers within Starfleet are briefed on it.” Luke started off with. “Nicola, used to work with Starfleet Science and has been commanded to lead you on the training that you will undertake shortly.”

James looked at her and then went back to the admiral. “Okay,” He said nervously. “I take it I don’t have a choice in the matter?”

Shaking his head, the admiral declined the question. “I’m afraid not James, wearing those four pips comes with a price and this is one of them.”

“Understood.” James said and took in a breath, ready to be told something he knew may change him. 

“Computer, access and display Omega Directive briefing materials. Authorisation Duncan-two-one-alpha-tango.” The admiral ordered.

The holographic emitters in the circular shaped table before them all came to life and a blue symbol appeared. The slowly turning symbol was that of the greek letter omega. James knew of it but had never heard what the Omega Directive was. 

“This James is the Omega Directive, it is one of the few clauses that a Starfleet captain can use when having to break the Prime Directive.” Luke shared. 

Surprised to hear that, James’ expression changed. His breath almost stopped in its tracks. “I didn’t think there was anything that would supersede the Prime Directive?” He quizzed. His question made him sound like a first year cadet who had just been told that Santa Clause wasn’t real. 

Nicola smiled, appreciating the younger man’s naivety over the subject they were sharing with him. “Sadly James, the frontier has some boundaries that Starfleet has to break to keep us all safe.”

Luke continued to explain what the Omega Directive is as the holographic emitters displayed further information. “This is omega.” He said, showing an image of a molecule that James had never seen in any of his science lessons before. “It is the most powerful substance known to the Federation.”

“One molecule has the same amount of power as a warp core.” Nicola added. “But they represent a threat not only to the Federation, but to the entire galaxy.”

“How?” James asked as he studied the diagram further.

Luke tapped a button on a PADD that he had taken off from the table and loaded the next set of images. A research base appeared before him. “Back in the mid-twenty-third century, a team of the finest Federation scientists led by Starfleet physicist Ketteract worked at a top secret station in the Lantaru sector to synthesize a single molecule. They did it but the molecule became unstable and it caused a massive shockwave in subspace. When teams were sent to rescue them they encountered that they couldn’t reach the location of the base at warp.”

Confused now to that last statement, James’ expression changed again. “Are you talking about the natural Lantaru phenomenon that prevents any form of faster than light speed through it?”

“We are but it is no natural phenomenon. That was a cover up.” Nicola answered. “That single molecule was able to rupture subspace for several light years. Eventually the teams did arrive but the station and the research team were gone. They were killed by their own experiment. Starfleet Science examined what had happened and soon realised the huge implications this molecule could have interstellar travel and spacefaring civilisations.”

“It would be the end of the Federation.” James stated as he started to dot the dots on the wider picture. He was impressed that something so powerful had remained a state secret for so long. How could something that had been around since Kirk’s day be kept in the shadows? What other mysteries did the Federation remain silent on? Starting to realise he was now entering the big leagues, James made sure he listened to everything he was now told. 

“It would be the end for everyone in the galaxy.” Luke countered back with an even more serious tone. “I’m sure you are shocked to hear all of this, but sometimes space exploration bounces back and it can hit us hard in the face. This is one of those instances where we do not want to go boldly where others have gone before.”

Nicola added more to the briefing, still in a firm and sombre tone. “Federation cosmologists have even theorized that Omega once existed in nature for an infinitesimal period of time at the exact moment of the Big Bang. Others believe that Omega was the main source of energy for the actual Big Bang. Physicists have even stated that a chain of molecules could power an entire civilisation.”

Taking aback by what he had been just told, James exhaled quite a bit. “So why do Starfleet captains need to know about it?” He asked next.

“As I said, the Omega Directive is the most classified Starfleet order restricted to certain high ranking senior officials. Now, I truly hope you never have to encounter it but in case you do then you need to know all of this and know what to do in such a case.” Luke explained. “The Trinity, like every other Starfleet vessel, is equipped with equipment that could detect the omega molecules on long range sensors. Once this happens your ship is brought to a gradual halt by the computer and bridge controls are locked out. Only your authorisation can override this.”

“I take it I can’t share this with anyone on my ship?” James quizzed, feeling he already knew the answer.

“Absolutely not.” Nicola replied. “You would be arrested if you shared any of this and those you told as well.”

“Great.” James sarcastically said. 

“The computer will expect you to implement the Omega Directive in a private location without anyone else in the room.” Luke said, resuming the briefing. “You will then need to contact Starfleet Command who will then send a specialist team to destroy what you’ve detected.”

“Is that it?” James asked.

“Almost.” Nicola said, realising they had just dropped the biggest bomb on his lap. 

Luke continued, remaining composed as he spoke. “There has only been one case when a Starfleet captain has had to share the knowledge and training she received with her senior staff. That was in the most difficult of situations, but since then Starfleet has improved its training and awareness of Omega so starship captains can destroy Omega without having to break the directive.”

“Can I ask who did that? Or is that classified as well?” James wondered aloud. 

“We can’t directly say who, but it was a legendary Starfleet captain that was lost over seventy thousand light years from Earth.” Luke said, hoping that McCallister could infer who he was going on about.

Janeway. 

“You need to be aware that the Federation is not sure who else is aware of its existence, especially with our allies. We know the Borg revere it as their holy grail. To them it is utter perfection while others that the Borg have assimilated have looked to Omega with similar religious and mythical beliefs.” Nicola shared. “But whatever others think about it, Omega must be destroyed and cannot be allowed to exist. That’s why the Prime Directive can be ignored in this instance and whatever has to be done must be done to destroy it.”

“Whatever the cost?” James asked.

“Whatever the cost.” Luke confirmed. The admiral took a breath as he allowed that thought to sink into the young captain. “James, I know this is a lot to take on but over the next two weeks Nicola will train you on everything you need to know about Omega, the directive and godforbid how to destroy it in case you are ever in a position you have to deal with the matter by yourself. You’ll undertake the training here on Deep Space Nineteen. If any of your crew ask where you are, then the official stance is you are completing further training to support you in your new role.” Luke said, now in a more firm tone than ever before. “Which in part is true but they won’t know what type of training. That said, I have just issued orders for your crew to undertake R and R on Kovar, so I’m hoping we can avoid you being pestered too much.”

“Understood sir.” James said, realising for the first time since taking command he may have to lie to his crew. What a great start! Deciding he needed to not think about Omega for a second, he changed the topic of conversation. “Will I actually be completing the advanced bridge exam?”

Looking to his wife and back to James, Luke nodded. “Yes and a lot more, but Nicola who once worked at Starfleet Academy is an excellent teacher. She will make sure you are ready.”

Nodding to show he understood everything, James took a moment before he realised something. “I’m meant to be organising Captain Adelaide and Commander Cole’s funerals, will they be delayed?”

“You’ll have to do them after your training.” Luke answered before he assured him that everything will eventually be okay. “I can have my first officer assist you with all of the organisation.”

“Thanks.” James said, sounding somewhat grateful. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Not for now.” Nicola stated. “We’ve got quarters prepared for you on the station and someone can retrieve everything you’ll need from the Trinity. We’ll begin your training this afternoon at fifteen hundred hours in holodeck two.”

“Dismissed captain.” Luke ordered, letting James leave the room and process everything that he had just been told. 

USS Trinity (NCC-80421)
Kovar System, Beta Quadrant
Stardate: 61936.02 (8th December 2384)

“We’ve shed a lot of tears these past few days,” James said as he stood in the crew lounge of the USS Trinity. “And I know there are more to come as we come to accept our losses. Nevertheless both Captain Adelaide and Commander Cole would want us to return to the duty at hand. I will do my best to take you there. I ask this crew to stand with me now unwavering, so we can demonstrate Starfleet’s brilliance. Bless Captain Adelaide and Commander Cole, may their souls rest with the greatest of officers that have come before them. May we keep their memories alive in all that we do.” Pausing for a breath, as he saw many on his crew with a tear in their eye, James finished with a simple “thank you.”

His crew stood up to applaud his remembrance speech, including his new first officer: Commander Romen Corbin. Everyone then went quiet as the honour guard stood to attention and the boatswain whistle was played. 

James looked at the torpedo casing that held Captain Adelaide’s body in it. The Federation flag was draped over it. Part of him was heartbroken she was no longer there. She was his mentor, someone he had looked to for guidance, counsel and support. He had always hoped she would have been the one standing by his side as he took command of his first ship. Encouraging him along, sharing how proud she was of him. Alongside that he had always wanted her around so he could ask her for advice from one captain to another. But now he didn’t even have that. He felt somewhat lost. 

Part of him was envious of her as she took one of Starfleet’s greatest secrets to the grave with her. Since being told about Omega, he always wondered what she thought about it. He was extremely frustrated now for not knowing her deepest thoughts on such a dark and scary unknown. Training with Captain Duncan had prepared him and he felt more calmer to sit in the middle chair now. Nevertheless wanting to know what other captains had thought about it had bugged him. Going back to his former skipper, he was curious to know had she ever had to implement the directive? What was Adelaide’s reaction when she was told about it? Would she agree with Starfleet’s philosophy of just destroying it or would the scientist within her want to study it?  

He would never know and he sincerely hoped he would never have to cross that bridge himself. 

“Our multi-spatial probes are fully operational and transmitting back everything they come across on both short and long range sensors.” Commander Reyas identified as she showed those behind her the results of her department’s work. 

Pleased to see that everything was working well, Commander Cambil patted her friend on the shoulder as she praised her further. “Great work Karyn. It may make our exploration of this region slightly easier if we know what’s coming up.”

“I don’t know why we didn’t do it sooner.” Reyas remarked as she secured the link-up with the tiny fleet of probes. 

Responding sarcastically, the Bajoran first officer answered the El-Aurian science chief. “Oh I don’t know, two weeks of trying to help people who don’t like us may have gotten in their way.”

Grimacing at that response, Reyas couldn’t but not agree with Cambil’s assessment of their previous mission. After moving the Uxali to their new homeworld and helping them establish their new homes, the Uxali were quick to say thanks and goodbye to the Odyssey. Not wanting to overstay their welcome and cause any further unnecessary friction, Captain McCallister agreed to move on and now they were stuck waiting for further orders. During this lull they used the time to begin mapping the area further. 

There was a beep from the operations station and Lieutenant Commander Jen looked at his console, tapped away at it and then looked over to Cambil. “Ma’am, we’re picking up a distress call.”

Instantly Cambil looked over to the Trill and asked him the standard questions when such an announcement was made. “Anyone we know and how far?”

“It’s coming from a Kraylor ship and they’re about two light years away.” Jen reported back. 

The ship suddenly stopped and the powering down of the engines could be heard.

“I am reading all stop.” declared T’Rani from the helm. “I cannot determine what has caused us to stop but our engines will not respond to my commands.”

Concerned about what was happening to them, especially as they had just detected a distress call, Commander Cambil moved herself away from the science station to be in the centre of the bridge. “Do we know what caused it?”

“Checking.” The Vulcan pilot stated but before she could do anything else a message appeared on all of the bridge’s displays. Confusion appeared on everyone’s faces. The computer wasn’t responding to anyone.

Recognising it as the Greek letter Omega, the blue large shape was everywhere and stopping them all from doing their jobs. Tapping her command codes into the console that sat in front of her chair, Cambil got annoyed that nothing was working. “What is going on? I can’t access anything.”

“Bridge terminals and command controls have been locked out.” Jen stated as he turned around in his operations chair. “I can’t work out what the command is or where it has come from.” The Trill officer was blocked by the computer with every attempt he tried to bypass it.

Seconds later the captain’s ready room door opened and McCallister stormed out. His face looked serious and worried. Behind him was Lieutenant Tomaz, the ship’s new strategic operations officer from Barzan that had joined them at Starbase Thirty-Eight. The two of them had been preparing the report for the Uxali and it would seem their meeting was now at an end. 

“Don’t do anything, let me deal with this.” McCallister called out to everyone as he approached his command chair in the centre of the room. He inputted some codes into the console secluded into the left arm of his seat and then the lockout message was gone. “T’Rani keep us here until I say so. The rest of you don’t touch anything and await further instructions from me.”

McCallister then headed back to his ready room. As he walked over, Commander Cambil called after him. “Is there anything we can do sir? We did pick up a distress call sir from a Kraylor ship.”

“As I said, just keep our position here and do as you’re told Number One. The distress call will have to wait for now. That’s an order!” He snapped back just as the ready room doors opened and he left the bridge in a hurry. 

Confused as to what it all meant, everyone turned to look at the captain’s wife who was just as perplexed as they were. Realising she was being encouraged to find out more, she got up from her chair and followed in her other half’s footsteps. Approaching the ready room, the computer indicated that the door was locked and the captain had activated the do not disturb mode. No-one could reach the captain right now. 

Turning back to look at Cambil, Reyas had no idea what her husband was up to and for the first time in their marriage she had seen him get angry while on duty. It was unlike him not to agree to jump to high warp and save someone. It had something to do with that message and none of them knew what it meant, except him. 

Lieutenant Commander Lenjir, who had been on the security and tactical console this whole time, spoke up. “What do we do ma’am?” He asked Cambil.

Baffled as to what to say, she was still in shock with how McCallister had spoken to her. Instead Reyes answered on her behalf.

“We follow out the captain’s orders.” She said sternly as she returned to her station.

“Are you serious Karyn?” Questioned Counsellor Duncan from the chair to the left of the captain’s. Again he had been sitting quietly reading a PADD when everything had happened. “We can’t just remain here when someone is calling for help. It goes against Starfleet protocol and what is expected of us.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Groaned Jen, joining in with the collective concern.

“I’ve not known the captain long enough, but that message was more than enough to spook him to do something different. It must be a level ten clearance directive that we don’t know anything about.” Suggested Lieutenant Tomaz as he sat at one of the mission ops stations behind at tactical. 

Taking her usual seat, Cambil appeared to have calmed down since McCallister’s outburst. “Commander Reyes is right. We follow the order and let’s keep the speculation to absolute zero. The captain told us to wait, so we wait.” Deep down inside though she wanted to know what McCallister was up to and what had caused him to bark at her like that.

Feeling his stomach do several back flips as he stepped back  into the private confines of his ready room, Captain McCallister ordered the computer to lock the door and not to let anyone else enter without his prior authorisation.  Taking a moment to get himself comfortable and composed  at his desk, he pulled his seat forward to ensure he was sat up straight. “Computer, access secured datafile Omega one.” He ordered. 

Beeping in acknowledgement, the computer responded. “Voiceprint confirmed. State clearance code.”

Another breath came out as he kept his posture while answering the computer. “McCallister-one-seven-two-one-red. Clearance level ten.”

“Confirmed.” The computer appeared to pause as it brought up the current records from the ship’s scanners. “Sensors have detected the Omega phenomenon within two point three light years of this vessel. Implement the Omega Directive immediately. All other priorities have been rescinded.”

Tapping his confirmation into his desktop computer, McCallister zoomed in on the most recent sensor data and there before him was a holographic recording of a map showing the Odyssey and the location of the Omega phenomenon. “Computer cross reference with the location of the distress call that we picked up earlier. Are the coordinates the same?”

Working on his request, the computer then placed another overlay and showed the location of the vessel in need of help. It’s location had it within the two light year radius coming from the point where Omega was meant to exist. 

“Damn it.” McCallister muttered to him. “Computer, open a code forty-seven alpha priority transmission to the U-S-S Discovery, marked for the explicit attention of Commodore Bennet.”

“Working.” Came the cool reply of the feminine voice of the computer. 

There were several more beeps from the computer and then the commodore’s face appeared on the holographic displays. 

“Captain McCallsiter, let me guess Omega?” Bennet questioned and brought further surprise to McCallister with his opening question.

Nodding to confirm, McCallister went on with the reason why he called. “We’ve just detected the phonenema, how’d you know it was Omega?”

Appearing irritated at the news, Bennet answered swiftly. “You’re not alone with detecting it. I’m getting calls from many captains stating they are picking up Omega molecules across the Gradin Belt. I’ve just spoken with Admiral Beckett back in the Alpha Quadrant and it would seem that this is happening across the entire galaxy.”

“Damn.” McCallister answered. “I take it the directive still stands?”

“It does.” Bennet responded. “However, do not expect us to have any specialist teams arrive anytime soon. I can’t imagine them arriving to prevent a catastrophe from happening where you are. You’re one of our furthest ships but you must proceed with the directive whatever it takes.”

“Whatever the cost?” McCallister checked.

“Without revealing it to anyone else, then yes.” Bennet replied. “Keep me posted, good luck. Bennet out.”

The transmission was cut and James just shoved the pile of PADDs stacked on his desk off the floor in frustration in response to the situation he now found himself in. “Bloody great.” He mumbled sarcastically. “Computer, display the Omega Directive briefing material, authorisation McCallister-one-seven-alpha-tango.”

The holographic display changed and he now looked at everything he needed to prepare for. His worst nightmare since being promoted to captain fifteen years ago was now a reality. A headache started to form as he began revising his training. He had to act fast so he started to write a list of commands he would need to issue. This was going to be the toughest time in his career. How much he now wished he had been left in the Alpha Quadrant. 

Almost fifteen minutes later, McCallister allowed for Cambil and Reyas to see him. Both women looked pretty annoyed with him for not engaging with them and the others like he normally did. Nevertheless they remained professional as he asked them to take a seat on the sofa that stretched under the sloping window. 

“Listen, you both need to understand that there are some things that only I’m privy to as captain.” McCallister started with. 

“We understand that James.” remarked Cambil. “Captain’s eyes only and all of that.”

Appreciating the support, McCallister continued. “Well we are in one of those moments now and I don’t have the time to explain that to everyone. Odyssey will be engaged in a classified mission that rescinds all other orders and directives. I need you both to trust me that what I’m doing is for the good of all and I must carry out these orders whatever the cost.”

“Now you’re scaring me James.” spoke up his wife. Concern was now flashed across her face. 

Nodding in agreement, McCallister understood it. “I know that’s not the norm for me, but please don’t ask any more questions. Everything is classified. Am I clear?”

Looking at one another, both women then nodded back to him. 

“Good, here is a list of assignments I need to be carried out without any questions and I can only provide the data that has been given.” McCallister said as he gave them a PADD each. 

“What about the Kraylor distress call?” Cambil probed. 

“Tell T’Rani to set a course at once.” McCallister said, “but I give the orders for everything that takes place. Is that clear?”

“Clear.” Cambil replied.

“Dismissed.” McCallister said and he ended their chat. 

Walking past her husband with Cambil beside her, Reyas grabbed his arm and gave him a reassuring clasp. He smiled back, cherishing the gesture.

“The bridge is yours Max.” uttered Cambil as she and Reyas were summoned to the captain’s ready room. 

The counsellor obliged with a simple nod as she watched the two men cross the bridge and enter the room in the far corner. Silence remained on the bridge with only the odd computer beep here and there. 

Sitting watching the whole commotion unfold, Lieutenant Tomaz pondered if this was normal for the crew. He had been only with them a few weeks and so far he had summarised that they were a well oiled machine. In fact he felt quite welcomed into their ranks, he had worried slightly at the prospect of being the new guy entering a well-established crew. Watching the events unfold before him wasn’t something he had been expecting. It was almost as if the captain had a personality challenge from the moment their meeting had been interrupted and the moments he had gazed his eyes on the message on his screen. 

Curiosity got the better of the Barzan strategic operations officer and he decided to bring up what the database could tell him about the sign they had all seen earlier. Someone had mentioned omega and from what records were telling him omega was a letter from an Earth language known as Greek. It had some religious connotations too, mainly around the theme of the end, disaster and destruction. He postulated that if this was some sort of order from Starfleet to the captain then it must have been something quite serious for them to use that letter. He wondered if the Odyssey was the only ship that had this mode in its computer or if others did as well. 

The ready room doors hissed open, Commanders Cambil and Reyas left and a few seconds later the captain followed. Whatever was said between all three of them, it looked as if none of them were truly happy with what was exchanged. 

As the captain sat down, he issued orders to Lieutenant Commander T’Rani at the helm to set course for the distress call from the Kraylor and engage at maximum warp. “T’Rani though if you detect a large explosion in subspace point three light years to the Kraylor ship, you are under strict orders to turn the ship around and get the hell out of here.”

Curious about the additional order, T’Rani’s eyebrow rose in typical Vulcan fashion to look at her commanding officer. “Course heading sir?”

“The Alpha Quadrant.” McCallister clarified. 

Realising that was strange for him to state, Tomaz attempted to speculate why the captain would issue such a course heading, but then he wondered if this subspace explosion could affect the Barzan wormhole re-opening. 

“Understood sir.” T’Rani said as she returned back around to her console and laid in their new heading. “Course laid in sir.”

“Engage.” McCallister ordered. 

The Odyssey lurched forward and stretched as it entered its highest speed, making its way towards the Kraylor ship. As soon as the ship was at warp, the captain opened a channel to sickbay. “Max, will you and Tomaz head down to the library and become experts on the Kraylor. I want to know everything about them, including how to best deal with them and some tactics in case things get ugly.”

Nodding at once, the counsellor got out of his chair. Hearing his own name spoken, Tomaz instantly reacted and stood up too. 

“Tomaz, have you seen the Odyssey’s library yet?” Counsellor Duncan as he indicated for them to take one of the aft turbolifts.

Shaking his head, Tomaz answered honestly. “I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure yet.”

“Then you’re in for a treat!” Duncan stated as they got into the turbolift and left the bridge. 

Looking out at the bridge before the doors closed, Tomaz heard the captain give out further commands. He just wondered what was going on. Looking at Duncan, he wondered if he should ask. Deciding it was best not to say a word, he would leave it for the ship’s chief counsellor and diplomatic officer to bring it up. If he did.

Feeling Cambil’s eyes burrowing into his neck, McCallister continued to ignore his first officer’s stare at him. He knew she was annoyed that he wouldn’t share what was going on but he wasn’t going to put his life and others at jeopardy to satisfy her need to know everything. With several PADDs in his hand, called over Karyn and Lukiz to speak to him privately in the aft area of the bridge. Odyssey’s large bridge allowed for the crew to be able to hold quiet conversations without too many ears nearby. 

Handing them both a PADD with plans to create a harmonic resonance chamber, James looked at them both. “I need you to assemble as many people as you need from both of your departments and work together to build this to the exact specifications.”

Jen looked at it and went back to McCallister. “What is it sir?”

“It’s a harmonic resonance chamber.” McCallister said. “I need it built and installed in the Aquarius’ shuttlebay within four hours.”

Shocked at the time limit, Reyas looked at her husband for him asking them to do something which appeared almost impossible. “Are you kidding James? There’s no way we could run simulations, replicate the parts and test it in that time.”

“You don’t need to run simulations or test it, you just need to build it for me. Get it done.” McCallister insisted and looked at both officers. They got the message and also left the bridge.

Calling over both his first officer and tactical officer next to where he was standing, the next set of PADDs were handed to them. 

Lenjir looked down at them, “Gravimetric torpedoes? We don’t have any of them as part of our compliment sir.”

“I know, that’s why you’re both going to use those in the tactical department who have the training to modify our own stockpile of photon torpedoes to make them.” McCallister informed them. 

“Are we planning to destroy a small planet?” Cambil questioned, “The yield you’ve indicated is eighty isotons. That’s one hell of a blast James.”

“I know, I want at least twenty made within four hours.” McCallister said. “Ten will be placed on the Aquarius and the other ten left here on Odyssey.”

“Two hours sir? It’s not possible sir.” Lenjir complained back.

“Make it possible, Mister Lenjir. It’s why I’m assigning both of Odyssey’s top munitions experts on the case.” McCallister commanded before he dismissed both of them. 

Once they had left him to head down to the ship’s torpedo room, he looked over to the helm. “T’Rani, the bridge is yours. I’m heading down to sickbay and engineering.”

“Absolutely not.” Slyvexs said in a stern response as she looked the captain square in the eye. “I will not release such medication without knowing what it will be used for. My medical position supersedes your authority in this situation, captain.”

Frustrated that his crew was being such a pain in cooperating with his orders, McCallister was pleased he was in the private confines of the doctor’s office. “Doctor, I’m not going to order you again to carry out this task. Your medical authority is rescinded and you can file a complaint to Starfleet Medical all I like.” He stood still and glared back at the Denobulan woman. “Arithrazine, Twenty milligrams. I need it ready in two hours.”

“Fine.” Slyvexs said giving up with her protest as she slumped into her chair. “Where would you like it delivered to?”

“The Aquarius.” Bennet said as he made his way towards the door to leave sickbay. 

Slyvexs wasn’t finished with him. “The last captain I had to give twenty milligrams of arithrazine to in secrecy suffered with long term effects afterwards. Even until this day, I wish I had refused her order after she relieved my superior after he had the guts to turn her down. ”

Pausing in his pace, McCallister spun on his heels and looked back at her. “I’ll have the EMH look after me.”

“She assured me of the same thing and several weeks later died from complications on her bridge after being injured during a battle with some intergalactic criminals. If she had taken it with supervision she may have survived and you may have never got that fourth pip so early.” Slyvexs remarked. 

McCallister looked at Slyvexs with an expression of shock and walked back into her office. The doctor had just dropped a bombshell on him. “Are you talking about Captain Adelaide?”

Slyvexs winced her head to one side without saying anything. 

Knowing he had a job to do, McCallister glared down at his chief medical officer. “We’ve known each for a long time, so I’m going to hope that last comment was a slip of judgement on your part and it won’t happen again. Are we clear doctor?”

She said nothing back. 

He left sickbay. 

The counsellor was not joking around when he said the ship had an impressive library suite. It was huge. Duncan had informed Tomaz that the captain had expanded it when during several missions to aid Romulan evacuees he had agreed to store some of the books they had rescued. In fact one of the colonies they had assisted, Duncan revealed that he had agreed to take the entire library from a university. Along with every book there were numerous other artefacts and since the ship’s launch on a monthly basis the ship’s librarian and historian staff would replicate books from a range of Federation and non-Federation worlds to add to their growing collection. 

Taking seats down at a nearby computer console, Duncan loaded up the Delta Quadrant database compiled by Voyager and developed by those who had started to re-explore the quadrant since the stabilisation of the Barzan wormhole. 

“So here we go, the Kraylor.” Duncan said in a quiet tone. “There’s not much here.”

Tomaz agreed with that assessment, the articles about them were short and sharp. “Humanoid species, with a gill-like jaw line. Technologically advanced, almost the same in comparison to the Federation. They were in a state of conflict with the Annari Empire when Voyager met them.”

“This is interesting, there’s a few log entries here by Voyager’s senior staff.” Duncan remarked as he read on. “They developed cloaking technology to by-pass the Annari blockade around their homeworld but deceived Voyager initially by keeping this fact a secret at first.”

Tomaz looked at the counsellor. “I wonder if the conflict still exists to this day?”

“Maybe.” Duncan said, remaining focussed on the console before him. “There’s not much else in the database.”

“I’ve got a star chart up of the location of their homeworld.” Tomaz remarked. “That ship is quite far from home.”

Duncan peered over Tomaz’s shoulder. “So they are.” He said, wondering why they were so far away from their territory. “If their technology was on par with Starfleet over twenty five years ago, then let’s assume they’ve developed at the same rate. Let’s see what we can get to know about their ships to give the captain some tricks up his sleeve.”

Agreeing with their next course of work, Tomaz got on with loading up the sensor readings Voyager took of the Kraylor ships it encountered.   

Still fuming at Slyvexs’ behaviour with him, McCallister entered engineering in an already bad mood. Thankfully, his chief engineer detected it via his Betazoid telepathic abilities. He instantly looked up from the main ‘pool table’ he was sitting at when the captain entered. 

“Sir, is everything okay?” Hunsen asked with care through his gruff tone. 

McCallsiter nodded and just waved his annoyance away and handed Hunsen the last PADD. “Tremt, I need you to install multiphasic shielding around the warp core in two hours.”

Taking the PADD, Hunsen looked at the specifications. “These are quite advanced configurations sir. I’ll need more than two hours.”

“We don’t have any more time. I need those installed and I need you to get Tierra to begin modifying the Aquarius to withstand extreme thermal stress. Twelve thousand Kelvins, at least. She’ll need to also instal the same type of shielding around its warp core.” McCallister commanded. 

Calling over his Deltan assistant chief engineer, Hunsen was keen to get the tall woman’s input on the job. Lieutenant Tierra joined the captain and smiled at him. “The captain is giving us a challenge. Two hours to get all of this done.” The Betazoid said with a grin as he held up the PADD. 

“Two hours?” She said looking at it. “We’ll have it done with ten minutes to spare sir.” Tierra said with confidence.

Looking between the two engineers, McCallister smiled at the enthusiasm from her. “Perhaps I should make Tierra chief engineer?”

“Maybe you should!” Hunsen remarked back with a grin. “Seriously though sir, we’ll get this all done but what is it all for?”

“That’s on a need to know basis and you don’t need to know.” McCallister answered back. He looked at the Deltan woman. Her slight baldness made her extremely beautiful to look at, but like him she too was married. Her wife worked in the exo-biology labs and was one of Karyn’s finest officers. “If you want a third pip on that collar Tierra, then I’d also appreciate it if a standard holographic crew package could be installed on the Aquarius too.”

Shocked at that order, Tierra’s eyes popped open for a bit. “I’ll see what I can do sir.” She then said with a smile. 

“Both of you are stars, thank you.” McCallister answered as he left engineering. 

Tierra looked at Hunsen as their boss left engineering. “We’re screwed, there’s no way we can do this in two hours.”

“You did say we could do it all with ten minutes to spare.” Hunsen countered back with. 

“Remind me to stay quiet the next time the captain asks for something.” Teirra said as they both moved away from the pool table and straight away called their teams over to get started. 

Eventually leaving main engineering, McCallister was surprised to bump into his yeoman and chief of the boat. Court was leaning against one of the bulkheads with a flask of tea in one hand and a PADD in the other.

“Tobi, what are you doing here?” The captain asked as he continued to stroll down the corridor heading to the nearest turbolift. 

Quickly falling in beside the captain, Court spoke up. “I heard that something important was happening and I assumed you may need this.” He said, offering him the small flask of tea.

As they entered the turbolift, McCallister graciously thanked Court for the thought and hot beverage. Court knew him very well. “That’s just what I needed, thank you Tobias.”

“I take it that with the fact you’ve met with every member of the senior staff, you want regular updates on whatever they are doing?” Court asked.

“I do, every half hour I want progress reports but they must be encrypted for my eyes only.” McCallister answered back. “In fact, inform all department heads who are undertaking any specific orders from me that they are to encrypt their log entries.”

“Understood sir.” Court said as he took a note on his PADD and sent a message to everyone one on the senior with the captain’s orders. “Anything else sir?”

“Yeah, I’ll be leaving the Odyssey in four hours. Can you ensure that the Aquarius has enough provisions to last as long as it can and that my belongings are transferred as well.” McCallister answered. “Are the boys still in class?”

“I believe so sir.” Court answered the last question and typed out the first things that McCallister wanted him to do.

“Deck seventeen, school room eleven.” McCallsiter ordered the turbolift. He looked back at Court as the cart started to travel to its destination. “Tobi, everything I share with you is highly classified as well. Do you understand?”

Nodding, the enlisted man showed his support and understanding to his captain. “I do sir.”

Smiling in appreciation for his loyalty, McCallister always knew he could trust Court. “Good, because I’m about to ask two things of you.”

“Anything sir, you know that.” Court said calmly.

“You need to know the mission I’m about to undertake is dangerous and classified. I may be successful but if I’m not, then Tobi there’s no-one else I trust more to look out for my boys and help Karyn out more than you.” McCallister said sincerely. “They will never be allowed to know what I did that got me killed, but just assure them I did it for the greater good.”

Court just nodded again, trying to make sense as to what his captain was saying.

“The next thing,” McCallsiter paused as he sighed. “The next thing is I’m going to give you one order that will most likely put you at odds with the rest of the senior staff during my absence, but whatever you do I need you to trust my judgement with what I’m about to order you to do.”

“Okay.” Court said, sounding a bit confused and worried with what McCallister was about to say.

“If Cambil decided to come after me with some rescue plan, then you are to contact Commodore Bennet at once using a code forty-seven channel and inform him of what she is up to. Failing to do that, then activate the Emergency Command Hologram, the computer will reprogram it to take command over the ship and move it away from what is happening. By coming after me she is putting not only the ship in danger but everyone’s lives in danger.” McCallister ordered.

Surprised to hear that he thought she would do such a thing, Court expressed his concerns. “Are you sure she would do such a thing? Also sir, I don’t have clearance to use a code forty-seven channel or activate the ECH.”

“I know Bexa too well and unfortunately our time together means she may be blinded by loyalty. No-one on this ship knows what is going on and that is how it must be.” McCallister remarked. “As for the channel and ECH issue, computer give access to code forty-seven channel and the permission to activate the Emergency Command Hologram to Senior Chief Petty Officer Tobias Court, authorisation McCallister-one-seven-alpha-tango, clearance level ten. He is authorised to use it over the next two weeks only.”

“Temporary access to code forty-seven channel and the Emergency Command Hologram granted to Senior Chief Petty Officer Tobias Court. Restrictions are in place and the Emergency Command Hologram will activate in Omega mode.” The computer announced back. 

“Do I want to know what Omega mode is?” Court asked his captian.

McCallister shook his head. “No and you’re not authorised to know either.” He took a breath again. “Tobias, I know I’m asking a lot of you but you need to do this for me.”

Court just nodded again, like the obedient yeoman he was. “Just come home sir.”

“I promise to do my best.” McCallister said as the turbolift came to a halt and the doors opened onto deck seventeen. He stepped out and gave the flask back to Court. “Thanks again Tobi.”

Shortly afterwards, Captain McCallister was standing in Faren Naprem’s office, just off to the side of the classroom where his three boys were currently working. Faren was the Bajoran teacher who taught on the Odyssey to those aged eleven to seventeen years old. He specialised in mathematics and history. Not only was he the husband to McCallister’s first officer, Cambil, but also father to their two boys. Over the years the families of both McCallister and Cambil’s had developed a strong relationship, a true close bond. So what was currently happening was extremely difficult for the captain.  

“It’s nice to have you visit down here James.” Faren said with a heartfelt smile. “Unexpected but nice.”

“Thanks Naprem.” McCallister said, reflecting back a similar sincere expression. “Listen, I need to give you a heads up. Bexa is going to be working late and she is going to be extremely mad with me for some time now.”

“You two had a falling out?” The teacher asked with concern.

“It’s classified, but I need to see my sons before I go.” McCallister remarked. 

Understanding that he couldn’t ask anymore, Naprem left his office and retrieved the captain’s sons from their studies. Henri, Alfie and Theo all walked in, confused as to why their dad was visiting them in school.

“Everything okay Dad?” Henri asked first.

“Sort of guys.” James replied back and gestured for them all to take a seat on the sofa opposite to him while he leant against the edge of Naprem’s desk. 

“Dad, is mom okay?” Theo questioned next.

Nodding and putting his hands out to calm them instantly, James confirmed their mother was fine. “She’s okay, she will be working more shifts in the coming days so she won’t be around as much so I’ve asked Uncle Tobi to be around and I am sure Naprem will help out too.”

Unsure of where he would be, Alfie looked at his two other brothers and back to his father. “Dad, are you leaving the ship?”

“I will be; in about four hours.” He answered back. “I can’t tell you where I am going as it is classified but I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye.”

“Dad, you never come down here and pull us out of class before going on an away mission.” Alfie remarked. Then the penny dropped and he realised why. “Oh my god, dad this mission is dangerous isn’t it? You may not come back!”

Henri and Theo looked at Alfie then at their father. “Is that true dad?” Henri questioned.

“Tell me it’s not true dad.” Theo added, a surge of panic in his tone appeared similar to how Henri and Alfie sounded seconds ago.

Looking at them all, James took a deep breath. “I don’t know.” He answered truthfully. “And I couldn’t go without seeing you and telling you all how much I love you and how proud I am of the men you are becoming.”

At that moment all three of his sons got up and pulled into a tight hug with their father. If this was going to be their last time together, it would be one they would remember for eternity. 

An hour had now passed and Lieutenant Tomaz returned to the bridge with Counsellor Duncan. The bridge sounded almost eerie again as barely anyone was talking. Captain McCallister was standing at the aft stations with a PADD in his hands, he appeared to be taking notes when he noticed the arrival of the two men. 

“Report gentlemen.” He asked.

Tomaz noticed that the captain’s eyes appeared a bit red and sore. Marks going down on his cheeks were also apparent. He couldn’t work out what had happened but noticed that Duncan had seen it but didn’t inquire what had happened. Letting the counsellor, who was the senior out of the two of them, answer was Tomaz’s first reaction after the captain spoke.

“There’s not much to go on sir, but the Kraylor appear to be a somewhat reasonable civilisation. However they could still be a desperate people if they are still in conflict with another power called the Annari Empire.” Duncan shared.

“That said captain, if it is a genuine Kraylor ship then they are far from home.” Tomaz added before taking in a breath from his breathing apparatus attached to his cheeks. He felt a bit lightheaded sometimes when the gases he needed to breath didn’t always give him enough to counteract the M-class environment being simulated on the ship.

“Well we’re about to find out, lieutenant.” McCallsiter indicated as the ship came out of warp and the image of the damaged Kraylor ship appeared on the main screen. 

Before them the Kraylor ship, which looked very similar to a scaled up version of Stafleet’s Peregrine-class fighter, was adrift and powerless. Plasma was leaking out of a nacelle and it could be seen that the ship’s aft section of the hull was missing. Force fields flickered on to support the ship. 

“Yellow alert.” McCallister ordered as he made his way over to the centre of the bridge. “Let’s see who sent this distress call, open a channel.” 

“No response to our hails.” Duncan announced. The counsellor had taken over communication control as Jen was still working with Reyas on the harmonic chamber.

“Lifesigns?” McCallister asked next.

Tomaz, who had taken over at tactical, carried out the function and scanned the ship. “Twenty-one, but they are weak.”

“What did I miss?” Asked a voice coming off the turbo lift. Everyone turned to see Cambil entering the bridge.

“Not much.” McCallister answered back, still looking at the ship on the main screen. “Torpedo status?”

“Cline is loading the last lot on the Aquarius as we speak. We’ve got crews working on more for Odyssey.” Cambil answered as she took her seat. 

“Captain, their aft section seems to have been ripped off by the trailing edge of an explosion. I’m detecting a high concentration of theta radiation around the surrounding damaged bulkheads.” Tomaz shared. The Barzan took a breath. “The pattern is consistent with them just missing the full force of a subspace explosion.”

“Can you calculate where the explosion may have been?” McCallister inquired.

Interrupting the line of questioning, Cambil spoke up and sounded irritated with her captain. “Don’t you think we should save the Kraylor first?”

“Any other time I would agree but we need to ensure we are safe first. Lieutenant Tomaz, carry out my orders. Use the astrometrics sensors to assist.” The captain replied. He stood up, “Start beaming the Kraylor survivors to sickbay. Max, I want you to meet with them and see what they say.” 

Duncan stood up, “aye sir.” 

“Don’t share anything they say with anyone else except me.” McCallister commanded.

Nodding to show he understood, the counsellor made his way towards the lift and headed down to sickbay.

Looking to his first officer next, McCallister issued more orders. “Have a repair and rescue team meet me in transporter room three. Lieutenant Tomaz, you’re with me. The bridge is yours Number One.”

Cambil didn’t say anything. It was clear she was still annoyed with the secrecy on the captain’s behalf. Tomaz acknowledged his orders and followed the captain as he headed to the other lift as well.

Kraylor Survey Ship 1721
Gradin Belt, Delta Quadrant
Stardate: 76478.53

Beaming over onto their bridge was relatively simple. It was no bigger than a Defiant-class ship, however with all of the damaged systems and power fluctuations the room appeared bigger due to the limited light.

Peering through the broken cabling and fallen bulkheads, Captain McCallister led his team through as they sifted through to find anymore survivors. Along their way they had discovered some bodies, all of which were tagged and beamed over to the Odyssey’s morgue. 

Some of the bridge consoles were active. 

“Tomaz, start downloading their entire computer core.” McCallister ordered, gesturing towards one of the operational consoles. “I want to know what hit them and what they were up to.”

“Sir, I’d be negligent if I didn’t say, isn’t that against protocol?” Tomaz questioned. “Don’t we need to gain permission from the Kraylor first before we do such an act?”

Taking a breath, McCallister was not used to having to tell his crew to get on with it when he knew protocol was being breached. “Lieutenant, for the duration of this mission anything I order I expect to be followed. All protocols and directives are rescinded. Am I clear?”

The Barzan swallowed his pride and just accepted his dressing down. He took out his tricorder, bypassed their lockouts (which was easy to do as they were damaged and corrupted) and started to gain access. “Download in progres sir, it should only take a few minutes.”

“Good, when we get back to the ship I want you to assist me in accessing it all.” McCallister said but he stopped when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Something moved under one of the forward consoles. A shadow.

Pointing his wrist torch in the direction, he came across one of the survivors. Rushing over, he pushed some debris out of the way and found a young Kraylor officer in military attire hiding. 

“I’m James McCallister, captain of the Federation starship Odyssey. We’re here to help. Stay still.” He offered as he took out his tricorder. “What’s your name?”

“Samken. Midshipman Samken. I’m the helm officer.” The scared man said as he was helped out after McCallister scanned him. Samken was probably the same height and build as Tomaz. 

“I can’t see anything wrong with you, but we should still get you checked out.” McCallister suggested. He turned to Tomaz. “This is Lieutenant Tomaz, my chief strategic operations officer.”

“Nice to meet you.” Tomaz offered with his boyish smile.

Samken copied the same gesture and thanked him. “Do you know where my captain is? She was injured when a plasma conduit exploded.”

“Hopefully she’s back on our ship being treated.” Tomaz assured.

“What happened to you?” McCallister quickly asked.

Hesitating at first, Samken eventually answered. “We were hit by a subspace shockwave. Our shields weren’t strong enough and our warp core was damaged. It was ejected.” 

McCallister carried on with his questioning, “Do you know what caused it?” 

Again more pause before an answer from Samken, “I can’t remember, sorry.” 

“Okay, let’s get you over to our sickbay.” McCallister said, disappointed he couldn’t get anymore. Tapping his combadge, he placed a tagger on Samken and ordered for him to be beamed over to the Odyssey.

“Not quite honest was he?” Tomaz remarked after Samken left.

Ignoring the comment, McCallister went over to the console. He was eager to see the sensor logs. Using his tricorder he bypassed the security lockouts with ease. Starfleet decryption algorithms had advanced significantly in the past two decades thanks to the study of Borg algorithms and Romulan techniques. Eventually he found what he was looking for and the sensor logs confirmed what he had suspected. 

The Kraylor had been playing with Omega on this ship. There was an entire block of data dedicated to their research. 

“Tomaz, take over here and transfer the last of the downloads to the Aquarius. I want them encrypted too.” McCallister ordered. 

“Aye sir.” Tomaz said.

“Once we’ve searched the whole ship for survivors and we are sure we’ve got everyone then let me know.” McCallister requested. He picked up his tricorder. “I’m heading down to engineering before returning to the ship.”

McCallister made his way throughout the rest of the ship, seeing what else he could find about their work around Omega. He wouldn’t leave any stone unturned and for the first time since all of this started his conscience was starting to debate what was right and what was wrong, nevertheless the proceeding thought that omega must be found and destroyed was overriding all moral objections he was having. 

Sighing heavily, Doctor Sylvexs closed her tricorder as she lost another two patients that morning. The Kraylor survivors they had rescued so far had all been exposed to high levels of theta radiation which caused further complications to treating them. Those two she had to record as dead had passed away from other critical injuries made worse from the high dosage of radiation exposure they were suffering from.

Walking into the sad scene, Counsellor Duncan caught the end of what had just happened. Seeing the turmoil on the face of the Denobulan doctor, he walked over to speak to her. “Sylvexs, you okay?”

Nodding once, she answered in quite a calm and somber tone. “If we had arrived sooner we may have had a chance to help these people.”

Duncan knew the comment wasn’t aimed at her but at the captain’s lack of quick reaction when they had detected the distress call. Deciding not to comment on her remark, he looked around at the survivors that were being cared for by her medical staff. “Have you found any of the senior staff?” 

“Actually we have the captain over here.” Sylvexs answered and took the counsellor over to where she was indicating. Before leaving she instructed her nurse to place the Kraylor she had just lost into their morgue.

Crossing over the large sickbay, Duncan followed the chief medical officer to where a female Kraylor lay. She was out of her black thick uniform, which slightly resembled what the Cardassian military wore, instead wore the turquoise surgical gown she had been changed into.

“She suffered lightly everyone else, minor injuries and we’ve already started her treatment to the high levels of radiation she was exposed to. She should make a full recovery.” Sylvexs shared as they approached their guest. “Her name is Captain Donlar.” 

Seeing the Starfleet officers approach her, Donlar attempted to push herself up. Obviously she knew who Sylvexs was and looked to the new man beside her. She was overwhelmed by the flood of emotions she was experiencing. From the pain of her injuries, to the guilt in hearing that many of her crew had not survived to the gratitude for their saviours. “Are you the captain of this ship?” She asked Duncan.

Deciding to use his other title in this instance, Duncan felt their guest deserved the treatment her rank brought. “I’m Commander Maxwell Duncan, third officer and chief diplomatic officer for the Odyssey. My captain and other colleagues are currently in the process of rescuing your crew and attempting to stabilise your ship.” Duncan answered her. “My captain has asked me to meet with you to find out what happened, are you well enough to speak captain?”

Donlar nodded and with help from Sylvexs she sat up. “I am extremely grateful for everything you and your crew are doing for us.” She said in between coughs.

Smiling in appreciation for her kind words, Duncan stood closer to her. “You’re welcome, I’m sorry that so many of your colleagues did not make it.”

“You’re not the only one commander.” Donlar stated with regret ingrained in her tone. “The shockwave just came out of nowhere and was so unexpected. All of it was for nothing.”

Curious to know more about what she meant, Duncan pressed the issue further. “What happened captain?”

“We detected a powerful molecule several weeks ago and when we approached it our scans indicated it was just as powerful as a warp core.” Donlar recounted. “We were attempting to transport it to one of our deep space research stations, they had collected several others, when it became unstable. We had mere seconds to transport it out into space before jumping into high warp. The shockwave from the molecule caught our tails as we fled.” Pausing for a second, she took a breath and shook her head. “We were too naive about it. We thought that if we could harness its power we could use it to finally be free against the Annari. We were fools.”

Surprised with her reconciliation, Duncan thanked her for what she shared and promised they would look after her crew. “We’ll do what we can to make you as comfortable as possible.”

“If my ship is beyond repair, please just leave it to drift. She added. “There’s no point wasting your resources on it.”

Realising she had given up, Duncan wasn’t going to let her be defeated. “Let’s see what the list of damage is first and then we can assess our situation from there. I’m going to leave you in the capable and caring hands of Doctor Sylvexs and when Captain McCallister returns, I will try and arrange a meeting for you to have with him.”

Thanking him, Donlar smiled before he left her. 

Looking at Sylvexs, Duncan reminded her that everything that Donlar had shared was classified and not to be shared with anyone else. Walking out of sickbay he tapped his combadge. “Duncan to McCallister, are you free sir? I’ve got something I need to share with you that’s urgent.”

McCallister answered quickly. “I’m back on board the Odyssey. Meet me in tactical astrometrics.” 

Acknowledging the reply, Duncan made his way to his captain. 

Once Counsellor Duncan had briefed Captain McCallister on what he had discovered from his chat with the Kraylor captain, the Odyssey’s skipper pushed his timetable of leaving up further. After speaking privately to Captain Donlar who had revealed more information to him, McCallister was quickly working on his next move and was currently finishing off in the tactical astrometrics lab. The suite itself was almost like the normal astrometrics lab, a huge wall monitor with a number of monitors and consoles dotted around the edge of the semi-circle shaped room. The main station sat in the middle, one that could be accessed by a group of officers if needed. The room was a recent addition to the ship after its recent overhaul on Earth. Replacing one of the many storage rooms, Starfleet had outfitted the Odyssey with the room to give their new strategic operations officer a place to work. Alongside this, McCallister had requested it after being impressed with what the USS Endeavour was able to undertake with its Combat Information Centre. The small team that now existed on the Odyssey under Lieutenant Tomaz’s direction had all been dismissed by the captain. The room was locked and everything he was doing was being encrypted by the computer as he went along. 

The door chime went off and he quickly switched every console and monitor to standby with a single command to the computer. Allowing the person who wanted to see him to enter, McCallister turned his head to the left of where he stood. Not surprised to see Commander Cambil enter, he smiled friendly at her. The two of them had been at odds with each other ever since he had to implement the Omega Directive and he couldn’t share with her what was going on. 

“Bexa, everything okay?” He asked as he saved the last of his work and sent it to the Aquarius’ computer. 

Holding a PADD in her hands, the Bajoran woman nodded as she passed it to him. “Everything you asked of the senior staff is now complete. The last of the Kraylor have been recovered and are on the ship. Tremt wants to know if he is sending any more engineers over to their ship to undertake any further repairs. Their systems have been secured, but they’ve taken quite a beating.”

Considering his choices carefully, McCallister aired on the side of caution as he took the PADd from her and skimmed over the brief key points that showed everything completed. “That’s good to hear as I’m about to leave on the Aquarius.” He said first before answering her question. “Tell Tremt he can begin repairs, but I’m going to place a condition on it that neither him or you are going to like.”

“That seems to be a recurring theme lately.” Cambil sarcastically remarked as she crossed her arms against her chest. “Would it be out of line to ask where you’re going?”

Ignoring her first comment; he sympathised with her tremendously. It was the first time in almost eight years of her being his first officer that he couldn’t share their orders with her as she didn’t have the fourth pip on her collar. Without a doubt the two of them were two of Starfleet’s finest captains and first officer duo, but her knowing about Omega’s existence was not worth the risk to either of them. “I can tell you this. I’m heading to a place Captain Donlar called the Delta Hedalos Sector. It has several systems in it, one where the Kraylor has a secret research centre. One of two things is going to happen. Either I will succeed on my mission, and return thereafter or long range sensors will detect a massive explosion in subspace. If that happens, and this is where my condition for Tremt comes in, then you’ll have less than a few seconds to dump the Kraylor ship, jump to high warp and move quicker than a Ferengi trying to save their latinum. Head for the Alpha Quadrant and don’t look back, is that clear?”

Still annoyed at him for being so secretive with what was going on, Cambil shook her head in disbelief. “This is ridiculous. You’re expecting me to abandon my captain, my friend in the middle of the Delta Quadrant?”

“If I fail Bexa, you won’t be abandoning me.” McCallister said solemnly. 

“Are you honestly telling me that Starfleet is sending you on a suicide mission?” She questioned. “I don’t understand why you can’t limit knowledge of whatever you’re undertaking to a few of the senior staff? Surely you can’t be expected to do this by yourself?”

“I’m afraid I can’t discuss that, Bexa.” He paused, “As I said before, you need to trust me on this one. You have your orders and I expect you to follow them.”

“You’re asking me to trust you with something I don’t know what it is and when it goes wrong to lead this crew as far away from you as possible with the assumption you’re dead. How the hell am I supposed to do that? And why can’t I head to the wormhole?” Cambil questioned further.

McCallister hesitated at first to answer that and he considered his response carefully, but his expression said it all.

“By the sake of the Prophets, this is bigger than us. Isn’t it? This is a coordinated effort by Starfleet across the quadrant, isn’t it?” Cambil guessed. In her mind the larger picture of whatever was going on was starting to form. “If you and others fail then the wormhole could be gone, couldn’t it?”

“That’s a possibility, yes.” confirmed McCallister. “Just keep heading to the Alpha Quadrant and if you can get in touch with Starfleet over hyper-subspace then let them know what happened. I can’t stress enough how important it is you have got to keep moving away from here.”

“You know, I could easily go and ask Captain Donlar what happened?” Cambil rhetorically asked. “I would know everything.”

Shaking his head, McCallsiter countered back with a “No you won’t and you can’t.” He said. “I’ve placed the Hazard Team on bodyguard duty. No-one, besides authorised holographic medical staff, who will be closely monitored on their interactions, are allowed near to the Kraylor, including Captain Donlar. She has also given me her word not to speak about any of it with anyone else on the ship besides me.”

“Are you kidding me JP?” Cambil threw back, throwing her hands in the hand in shock with his behaviour. “The Kraylor are an oppressed people who don’t deserve such treatment. Did you know the Annari have been blockading their homeworld for almost a quarter of a century? And now here you are stopping them from having their freedoms while they’re our guests! I feel like this isn’t a Federation ship anymore, it feels more like a-” She paused as she realised her anger was getting out of control and she would regret saying what she was about to say.

“Go on, say it!” McCallsiter encouraged her. “Like a Cardassian ship? Yeah?” Fuming that she would compare the Odyssey to that, especially with the relationship they had and how much he understood how hurt and passionate she felt about the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, McCallister shook his head. “I’m not going to justify my reasoning, my orders and how this ship will be operated at this time with you Bexa. I have my reasons and that is it.” He stated in a firm tone. “No one has a right to question me or have a say on the matter. That’s why we have the chain of command and that’s why it needs to be respected, especially in special extraordinary circumstances.”

“And what about Karyn and your boys? Don’t they have a say in this?” Cambil inquired with a fierce tone. 

“That’s a low blow Bexa and you know I’m doing this to keep them safe.” He spat back as he answered her. “And it’s for them that I plan to do whatever it takes to return.”

“Good, I’m glad to hear the real James Preston McCallister I know is prepared to do whatever it takes to return home to his family.” Cambil stated, appearing to be lighting up in her mood through her tone. Their exchange was starting to become too heated. 

“Whatever the cost.” McCallister said. He looked at her, knowing that neither of them liked being in this situation they were in. “You know Bexa, you and I have never been at each other like the way we have been recently.”

“I’ve hated it James.” She shared honestly, pushing a slight tear from her eye. “I hate that Starfleet has put you in this position.”

He nodded in agreement. “You’ll get no argument from me on that.” He paused as he collected his thoughts further and took a breath. “ If it were a simple matter of trust I wouldn’t have a problem in sharing with you what I know. Promise me this though, that the day you become a captain and you know what I know, don’t feel you have to keep this burden to yourself. Every captain and admiral in Starfleet carries it.”

She just nodded in return. 

“I can’t ignore what I know and what I’ve been ordered to do. I won’t ask the crew to risk their lives because of my obligation or place their careers at risk because my moral compass told me otherwise. It’s nor fair. It’s not right. What I know is irresponsible to leave unchecked and not dealt with.” McCallister proclaimed while he looked away from her and up at the large wall monitor in the tactical astrometrics suite. “Bexa, there’s no one I trust more than you. You’re a fine First Officer and this is a fine crew.” Turning to look at her with the same seldom look as before, he asked her one question she wasn’t expecting to hear. “Are you ready to Captain this ship?”

Surprised with his frank question, she nodded. “Yes, but she’s yours until you get promoted or transferred.”

Appreciating the sentiment and avoiding adding on that she would become captain if he was killed in the line of duty, McCallister smiled at her as he crossed his arms against her chest. “Assemble the troops.” He ordered her.

Walking out on to the docking port from the turbolift with his sons either side of him and his wife holding his left hand tightly, Captain McCallister was pleased to see the entire senior staff gathered to see him before he left. He hoped this wasn’t going to be the last time, but if it was he would save this moment in his heart for a lifetime. 

“Captain on the deck.” shouted Senior Chief Petty Officer Court.

Everyone turned to face him and all stood to attention. 

“At ease.” The captain said as he continued to smile at them all as the McCallister clan approached them. He stopped before them and spoke up. “I’ll make this brief. Your orders are to complete repairs on the Kraylor ship and escort them to the nearest friendly outpost. However, if you detect a massive subspace shockwave coming from where I am going, then you are to use whatever means necessary to get this ship and crew back home safely to the Alpha Quadrant.”

“And what about you sir? Alone and left to live the rest of your life in the Delta Quadrant? Doesn’t sound like much fun to me.” Counsellor Duncan stated. 

“I’m hoping to see you in a few days time Max, but if the worst case scenario happens then as I’ve told Commander Cambil, you’re not to come and search for me.” McCallister responded in a cool authoritative way. 

“We’re not going to let you sacrifice yourself out here for something we don’t know anything about.” Lieutenant Commander Jen said, crossing his arms against his chest. “It’s not right, captain.”

Appreciating the support and loyalty, McCallister smirked at the joined Trill officer. Remembering the young man that sat on the bridge of the Triton all those years ago, recently fresh out of the Academy. “I’ve got my orders Lukiz, it’s not open for debate.”

“It just seems pretty lousy sir that we have to wait around.” Lenjir said, tugging on the end of his Tiburon ear lobe. “Surely a few of us could join you?”

“That holographic crew on the Aquarius can’t respond the same way a flesh and blood crew could.” Hunsen added.

“Enough!” McCallister said. “I appreciate your words, but you have your orders. Thank you.” 

Everyone went quiet for a moment, which gave McCallister a moment to say his goodbyes to his family. Karyn placed a kiss on his cheek with a whisper of “I love you” in his ear as they hugged farewell. His sons were next with their embrace. 

“Just promise to take care of yourself sir.” Slyvexs offered. The Denobulan doctor appeared sincere in her words as McCallsiter stepped towards the docking port to enter the Aquarius. 

He stopped by Cambil, gave her a hug and as they let go she spoke, “May the Prophets bless you on your journey ahead and be with you always.” 

Appreciating the sentiment, McCallister turned to everyone and gave one more wink at his wife and sons before the doors to the docking hatch closed and he boarded the Aquarius. 

This was it. Come what may, he would remove the threat posed by Omega or die trying. 

Whatever the cost.

The corridors were empty, bare in fact. Minimal light was on and the only noise came from the low hum of the warp drive. For the first time since the Omega Directive was activated, James McCallister felt some sort of calmness and was less anxious about his mission. Maybe it was the fact that he didn’t have to constantly remind himself to keep quiet on the directive to everyone else on the Odyssey. The constant glares and responses he got from his crew were tiresome and frankly quite annoying. He had even experienced it from his own wife. Every time he would tell them he couldn’t share what he knew with them or they just had to do what he ordered without any explanation and further information, it was like a constant barrier going up between him and them. It was no way to run a ship and he just wondered how much he would be able to salvage after he returned. If he returned. 

Then there were his boys. Having to shock them and prepare them for the possibility he may not return without actually saying those exact words had been tough. Though they were teenagers and could slightly understand the importance of his job, he would never want to know he left them at such a crucial point in their lives. 

Deciding to ignore those thoughts any further, James tried to compartmentalise them away to the back of his mind for now. Strolling along deck two, he approached the dark blue doors that had the golden words across it that said: SICKBAY. Automatically the door sensor recognised him and allowed him to enter. 

Walking into the medical bay, he was impressed to find the ship’s EMH at work especially as there wasn’t much for him to do as such. “Ah Captain McCallister, please state the nature of the medical emergency.” He said in his cheerful manner as he carried on with his tricorder scan of the person laying on the main surgical bed.

“Nothing for me doctor, I’m just checking in on our patient. How is she?” James asked as he stepped all the way in. Not quite remembering who the hologram’s likeness was meant to be (James could vaguely remember it was meant to be of a famed Betazoid doctor), the captain approached the photonic physician who had close shaven grey hair and thick black hair. 

The EMH looked between his patient and the captain. “She’s asleep but fine. I am surprised to see her on the Aquarius and not remaining in the Odyssey’s sickbay.”

“Well let’s just say the Omega Directive overrides your curiosity doctor.” James said as he looked at his guest on the bed. He wasn’t keen on dealing with any remarks from the holographic doctor. Being able to mention the Omega Directive to the hologram almost felt unnatural to James. Thankfully by being able to encrypt the hologram’s memory banks, Starfleet had been able to create a somewhat Omega Directive mode that meant that anything that was said and shared with the holograms working for James would be deleted once the mission ended. “Can you wake her for me please?” The captain commanded. 

Complying with his order, the EMH loaded up a nearby hypospray and placed it gently into the neck of his patient.

As she started to wake up, James looked to his acting chief medical officer and thanked him for his service. Taking the hint, the EMH just bowed his head and placed both the hypospray and tricorder down on the nearest surgical tray. “Computer deactivate EMH.” He said, almost sounding sad that he wasn’t needed anymore.

Once he fizzled out it left James and his guest alone in sickbay. “Captain Donlar, we have a lot to finish off.” James said as the woman came around and blinked several times.

The Kraylor captain nodded as she pushed herself up with her elbows. “Indeed. Where do we begin?” She looked around at her surroundings and realised that she had been moved and was now somewhere else. Looking down at her appearance she also discovered that she was no longer in the surgical gown as she had been after being treated in Odyssey’s sickbay. Instead she wore an all in one black jumpsuit with a high collar. It almost resembled her own uniform. 

“From the top, I need to know everything you know about this molecule.” James answered flatly as he crossed his arms against his chest.

“And in return you’ll remove my people’s greatest achievement from us and leave us to carry on fighting for our independence without a helping hand?” Donlar said, almost sounding annoyed at the situation she now found herself in. 

Frustrated that she may have started to have second thoughts on their collaboration, James sighed heavily before answering her. “That’s right and as I said to you before, by stopping your people from carrying on with this research you are preventing them from destroying themselves. There wouldn’t be a fight for your independence if your people were wiped out from existence.” James finished by pulling over a stool to sit on. 

Sitting up on the biobed, Donlar just nodded again. “If my superiors discover that I’ve aided you…”

“No-one will know you were ever here and we will take every precaution. At the moment I’ve made my crew believe you are secure in guest quarters and cannot be disturbed back on Odyssey. I’ve set up a tricorder to emit your lifesigns and the rest of your crew are also under lock and key if they’re not in Odyssey’s sickbay recovering. I’m hoping by sneaking off so quickly we can return before any more suspicions are raised.” James explained. “I also took the care of downloading your entire ship’s database and borrowing some equipment that may assist us in being stealthy with this matter.”

“I didn’t realise your culture was not only capable of being eloquent when enlisting the help of aliens but also so deceitful.  Let alone being good at thieving what is not rightly theirs?” Donlar said, sounding more irritated at James’ words and actions. 

“We’re not petty thugs captain, but to ensure we complete this mission successfully, I’ve got authority to do what it takes to ensure that conclusion.” He answered. In the back of his mind, he deliberated about just how far he would go to complete this mission successfully. Was he now crossing a line by bringing Donlar in? He couldn’t be second guessing himself. “So let’s get down to business. You said to Commander Duncan and me you discovered the particle, let’s start from there. Whereabouts was this?”

The captain took out a PADD and started to take notes. He needed to know everything. 

Almost an hour later, James entered the bridge with Donlar beside him. He gestured for her to take a seat at one of the unoccupied chairs in the small aft compartment. The Aquarius shared the same design lineage as the Defiant-class with its small compact style compared to the Odyssey. Its bridge was laid out in almost the same way as its distant cousin, except the holographic displays were being primarily used alongside the touch screen displays. The same deep blue colour scheme ran through the bridge as well. All of the chairs were navy blue while the carpet was a dark grey that had a blue line patterned etched around its edge. 

Donlar deduced that she was no longer on the Odyssey shortly after they had left sickbay. If they hadn’t been wrapped up in this mess involving Omega, if they hadn’t had to save the Kraylor ship, then James was certain that Donlar would have made a good ally. She was a clever woman with a strong ethical stance mixed up with a wonderful scientific curiosity. Feeling she was almost his complete counterpart, James had soon worked out that the Kraylor Armed Service had nothing like the Omega Directive. Not yet though. Without revealing too much of Starfleet’s deepest secret and their knowledge, James found his conversations with Donlar almost refreshing. She seemed to have understood the dangerous outcomes that the ‘cosmic particle’ (what her science officer had initially labelled it) would create for the universe. Using her knowledge of this region they were about to enter as well as what the Kraylor were doing with omega would ensure he could succeed in his mission. 

Rising from the captain’s chair was a tall slim human woman with long curly auburn coloured hair wearing the red command uniform. The ship’s Emergency Command Hologram, if she had been alive, would have appeared to be in her late forties to early fifties, turned to face her ranking officer. “Captain on the bridge.”

Ignoring the sentiment, James waved his hand as he approached his acting first officer. “Report.”

Turning to face her superior, the ECH’s voice was calming and smooth as she answered. “We’ve continued to monitor short and long range sensors for the– ” she paused as she noticed their guest and altered her use of vocabulary, “molecule in question but nothing has appeared.”

Smiling at her, James felt like he was back in the presence of his mentor and first skipper: Captain Brooke Fontana-Adelaide. Her peaceful demeanour reminded him of his early days as an ensign on the Audacious. She could always keep herself together in difficult and tense moments. How he wished he could be more like her. “Any sign of any other ships in the region?” He questioned. 

“Long range sensors have detected two Kraylor ships evading an Annari vessel.” The ECH reported as she showed a holographic display of the sensor scans. “For now they are not aware of our presence, but in less than an hour they will be.”

Looking over his shoulder, he looked at Captain Donlar. “Hopefully we can prevent that.”

“What do you have in mind?” Donlar was curious as she stood up. 

“Remember I said about me borrowing some equipment of yours?” James remarked, “Well, we’re about to go and install it so your colleagues and nemesis don’t see us coming.”

For a second Donlar wasn’t sure what he was implying before it finally clicked. “You stole my cloak?” 

Nodding at her and then looking back at the ECH, James gave out further instructions. “Have the emergency holographic engineering team activated and meet me in engineering. We’ve got an alien cloaking device to install. Get them to bring it up from the cargo bay too.”

“Understood sir.” The ECH said and twitched her head slightly to comply with his orders. 

Returning his attention back to Donlar, James gestured with his right hand for them to leave the bridge. “Care to assist me captain?”

“I don’t think I have much choice in the matter, do I?” Donlar answered back as she shook her head at how surprised she was becoming with the extremes that James would go to so he could complete his mission. 

“Run the last diagnostic, monitor the plasma flow and ensure the tetryon compositor is kept aligned.” James ordered the holographic engineers.

Obeying him without hesitation the holographic representation of a Tellarite, a Vulcan and a Caittian carried out their task. All three of them worked at high speeds, completing the work quicker than a normal flesh and blood group could. 

Standing just back from the Starfleet group, Donlar observed them with some form of admiration. They had spent almost a quarter of an hour installing her cloak in their engineering room. “I’m impressed how much you know about cloaking technology, especially when you don’t employ it on your own ships.”

“The Federation signed a treaty that prohibited us from developing the technology, but that agreement has somewhat been modified over the years and that empire we signed it with has split into three.” James answered, trying to brush the details to one side. “Starfleet engineers are aware of cloaking technology and the directive we are currently following–”

“Overrides that treaty and anything else your people consider lawful?” Donlar guessed. “Save me the repeated speech captain, please.” She sighed aloud. “For people who consider themselves to be explorers, you have a funny way of showing it. You absolutely disregard or even hold any form of respect for others and their laws if they are not part of your Federation. It truly astounds me, captain. You’re almost Annari in your approach.” 

“Under normal circumstances that would insult me as respecting others and their laws is something we highly believe in, but as I’ve said from the start these are not normal circumstances.” James bluntly answered, he was now starting to become tired of her reiterating points he already knew. 

Before she had a chance to make a quip back, the Vulcan engineer turned to the captain. “The cloak is ready sir.”

Nodding in response, James turned to the main engineering controls and sent power through it. The cloak started to make a noise. “Here goes.” He said aloud as he activated it. 

The Aquarius appeared to whibble in space and soon disappeared from sight. The sensors confirmed the cloak was now working. 

“We’re in business.” James said with satisfaction and he looked over to Donlar. She wasn’t sharing his level of enthusiasm for this achievement.  

“Bridge to Captain McCallister,” spoke the ECH over the intercom, “we’re about fifteen minutes away from the Forlax system and sensors have detected an increase in the amount of molecules.”  

Somewhat appreciative for the interruption from the ECH as he didn’t think his relationship with Donlar could improve any more, James was not surprised with what he had heard. He had feared that the increase in the amount of molecules would be the case as Donlar had explained they were experimenting with them to use as an infinite power source to defeat the Annari. James sighed before regretting asking the next question. “How many?”

“Close to one million.”

Placing his hands on his hips, he took in a breath as he considered his options. “Make sure the chamber is ready and active by the time we enter orbit, the torpedoes as well.”

“Understood sir.”

James tapped his combadge and closed the channel. “Look Captain Donlar, we both agree that we need to destroy what you call the cosmic particle. If we can do that without any further comments about the ethics of this mission, then I think we can complete our task and get back to ships sooner rather than later. Agreed?”

“Agreed.” Donlar said as he considered McCallister’s suggestion for a second. “However tell me captain, you said you would do whatever it took to achieve your goal, but just how far are you prepared to go?”

“As far as I need to go as I have no choice in the matter.” McCallister answered and then made his way to depart from engineering, leaving Donlar in his wake to consider his response. 

“So we’ve been able to restore their life support, environmental controls and plug up those massive hull breaches.” 

Commander Hunsen was updating Commander Cambil about the repairs with the Kraylor ship while they stood in main engineering. The chief engineer passed her a PADD with a more detailed report of his team’s work so far. Stood around the main ‘pool table’ by the large entrance, the two had been catching up.

“Great, where do we stand in restoring their engines?” Cambil asked as she glanced down at the PADD in her hands then back to Hunsen.

Crossing his arms against his chest, Hunsen sighed. “Their impulse engines are completely destroyed. Without access to a repair facility then it will take us several weeks to get them rebuilt, so I’ve got my people focusing on warp engines instead.”

“A wise decision.” Cambil stated. “Anything else?”

Hunsen took a moment to scratch his chin and he then shared his final thought. “There is one thing and I’m sure it’s nothing but…” He paused and then he could hear Cambil encouraging him through her thoughts and her stare. “It’s just there’s one piece of hardware missing from the Kraylor ship.”

“What is it Tremt?” Cambil pursued, realising whatever it was that it was irritating him for knowing it.

“Their cloaking device.” He answered. “The way it was removed was done by someone who is an expert in doing it in a way that it could be easily returned without much effort.”

“Are the Kraylor aware?” Cambil inquired.

“I don’t think so.” Hunsen replied. “But there’s only a handful of people on Odyssey who could do it, but before I visited their ship only one of those people visited it and had the time to do it.”

Raising her hand to stop him, Cambil knew what he was trying to say. “Let’s keep this off the record and we won’t talk about it for now.” She sounded disappointed as she knew who may have done it. “Are we clear Tremt?”

“Crystal.” He said with a disappointed sigh. 

Handing him back the PADD, Cambil thanked him and asked him to keep her apprised of their efforts in restoring the Kraylor’s warp drive. Leaving engineering, Cambil moved through the ship and made her way to the auditorium. She had to do something about what was happening and there was only one other person she could go to about it. Stepping into the large crew lounge, she saw Commander Reyes sat at the far end with her sons. They were enjoying an evening Mrs together. The scene looked odd without James there.

“Karyn, sorry to interrupt.” Cambil said as she looked on at the captain’s wife. “I need a word.”

Realising there was something on her mind, Reyes picked her napkin up and dabbed her sides. Excusing herself from her teenage boys, she walked over to where Cambil was. “What’s the matter Bexa?” 

Taking a breath, Cambil kept her tone low. “I’m worried about James and just how far he is taking this mission of his.”

Crossing her arms against her chest, Reyes knew that both Bexa and James had come to almost blows recently. It was no surprise and Reyes had been there with him as well. “What is it now?”

“Did you know he stole the Kraylor cloaking device?” Cambil questioned.

Shocked to hear that, Reyes shook her head. “No? Do they know?”

“Probably not as James left them all under house arrest.” Cambil replied. “Tremt has the evidence. I think we need to raise it to Commodore Bennet at least.”

Considering her duty not only to Starfleet but her vows to her husband, Reyes agreed and soon told her boys she was needed elsewhere  and would return shortly.

After a slight delay in getting hold of their superior, the two women eventually got through to him via a secure channel. Stood in the observation lounge on deck one they started the conversation on briefing the low ranking member of the admiralty on their concerns, both officers eventually finished and waited for the commodore’s response.

“I’m sorry, what exactly is it you want me to do about it?” Bennet asked them.

“Surely sir you can see that the captain’s behaviour to complete this mission is out of the ordinary.” Cambil countered back with. “Something needs to be done.”

It was clear that Bennet was sitting in his office on the Discovery, as his aid passed him something from offscreen to sign off. “Commander Cambil, I appreciate your worry but your captain is undertaking what he has been trained to do for an extraordinary mission. He has my full support. Now I’m ordering you both and everyone else on that ship to get behind him. Is that clear?”

Feeling like they had just been told off, both women nodded in response.

“When he has completed this mission, he will need your understanding that what he did he did for the greater good under some very difficult circumstances. He is having to fight off every natural instinct and focus on one thing only. So cut him some break and do what you both do best at and lead that ship by remaining loyal to your captain. Bennet out.” 

The commodore then went, leaving Cambil and Reyes confused further and this time by Bennet’s words and behaviour.

“This is bigger than we both knew.” Reyes said. “Let’s just get on with the job but be extra precautious.”

“Especially when James returned.” Cambil added.

Hesitating at first, Reyes eventually nodded in agreement. “Indeed, we won’t ever be told what he did or what happened.”

“That’s what frustrates me the most.” The Bajoran first officer said. “How can we help if we don’t know?”

Reyes didn’t answer as she and Cambil knew there was no answer to that question and it would be a burden that James would carry for the rest of his career.

The intercom then went off. “Duncan to Cambil.” Spoke Counsellor Duncan, who was currently in charge of the bridge.

“Go ahead Max.” Cambil answered.

“Two Kraylor ships have just decloaked and are asking why we have their ship in a tractor beam.”

“I’m on my way back now.” Cambil said swiftly as she left the conference room in a hurry. She prayed quietly to the Prophets that this was not going to end in a confrontation

Entering the Forlox system reminded James of being back home in the Alpha Quadrant. Where the Kraylor had set up their base looked awfully similar to the Andorian home system. A small icy moon in orbit of a huge blue and green gas giant. He had visited Andoria once during his time on the Audacious. All he remembered was how cold it was. The very thought of it brought back a chill down his spine. Looking at the planet before him from the Aquarius’ bridge, he wondered just where things would go next. He could see from the corner of his eye that the science station was lighting up with numerous readings of the ship’s sensors detecting the Omega Molecule. He knew he had to act sooner rather than later. Any time wasted on neutralising the molecules meant more trouble for them and possibly the entire Delta Quadrant. 

“Options?” James asked the holograms that now worked for him.

The Emergency Navigational Hologram, who had the appearance of a Trill man in his late twenties, turned around in his chair from where he sat at the conn. “Captain, can I suggest we do not enter orbit yet? We do not know if they have any scanning devices in orbit that may detect us, even under cloak. We are using their stealth system which may have some sort of identification code that we are not aware of.”

“A wise precaution.” James said back to the holographic pilot. James felt Donlar glaring at him from behind. He knew she wasn’t impressed with his methods to achieve his goal, but he was fed up with her constant comments. Not bothering to satisfy Donlar by showing how annoying she was increasingly becoming, James turned in his own chair to face her. “Captain Donlar, is such a device in orbit? Or will the cloak identify us? Will they see us because if they do then there’s no point in us being cloaked.”

Donlar looked between the main screen and then to James. “No, but you won’t find the base either. It is hidden behind a cloak as well.”

“Found it.” announced the Emergency Tactical Hologram. This hologram was made to look like a Ferengi female. She had an almost bubbly character that was close to being stereotypical of Ferengi behaviour. “I’m detecting a number of subspace distortions emanating from the base, probably due to their experiments. Their cloak is not really concealing them if you know what to look like. I also adjusted our sensors to detect the molecule’s resonance frequency. Sensors are confirmed, our target is there.”

Impressed with how well the holograms were turning out, James smirked with some sort of pride towards Donlar who in return just rolled her eyes as she moved from where she was sat to stand closer to the captain. “So what’s the plan now?”

“Well captain, this is where you make the decision. Either you give me the tactical information we need to disable their cloaking device and anything else that prevents us from transporting those molecules up or I have you confined to our very small brig while we launch an attack to cut power to the base to achieve that goal.” James answered.

Startled that he would take such a blasé approach, Donlar shook her head. “You can’t attack the base. You’ll end up killing my people and destabilising the molecules. It could end up destroying the base, hell, even the system and subspace would probably be destroyed in this region of the quadrant.”

“Then help me avoid a conflict we don’t need today.” James said, looking deeply at her. He knew by making that blatant strategy of just a full on assault would rile her up. Obviously he knew better not to launch an attack as any type of weapon had the potential to destabilise Omega. “You said you realised your people can’t harness this power and that it was too dangerous. You offered to come with me to remove this threat, so tell me what my other option is or I will have no choice but to go at it alone without your input. Help me to help your people.”

Shaking her head again at how good he was at manipulating her, she sighed as she rubbed her left chin gill. “Fine.” Donlar eventually said, giving in to the moral battle she was obviously undertaking in her mind. “The base’s shield grid fluctuates at a rate of point zero six terahertz, we normally align our transporters to match so we can beam down or transport anything up.”

“Well that’s one way in.” remarked James. He looked over to the ETH. “What do your tactical databases suggest with that information?”

The Ferengi hologram inputted the information into her matrices and quickly analysed all options. She then looked at the captain, “To ensure a stable transport of the molecules we will need to drop our cloak and shields. We still need to disable their cloak.”

“A single anti-proton beam should suffice.” The ECH then said from the ops station as she turned around in the chair. “If we start the beam on a low power setting and gradually ramp it up then it should force their cloak to fail. We wouldn’t affect the molecules either.”

The ETH nodded in agreement. “I concur.”

“And we don’t need to use transport enhancers? James checked, knowing that his training had always advised the use of them when beaming the molecule from one place to another.

“We should get closer to the target and if we could tie in the transporter targeting scanners into the main lateral sensor array then I think we will get a sufficient stable lock.” suggested the ECH. “We would need to be at least fifty kilometers from the base.”

Realising the idea seemed sound, there was still one more variable that James needed to know. He looked at Donlar, “Is the base armed?”

She shook her head. “No, it has a couple of small auxiliary ships. If the Annari had ever found it, the base’s commander has standing orders to initiate the self-destruct. There’s no point in us letting them have the chance to take the base and all of its research.”

“Let’s hope the base commander doesn’t have that idea when they see us above them.” James said, sort of glad they wouldn’t be shot at. He kind of wished he had brought the Odyssey’s Hazard Team to beam in first, secure the area and set up transporter enhancers. However he knew there was no way he could do that as a one man mission. Turning back to the holograms, he asked them how long it would take to make the modifications to proceed with their plan. When they said only a few minutes, he was relieved again. The sooner they finished here and got on with the mission, the better he would feel. “I’m heading down to the shuttlebay to see how the chamber is getting on.” He looked at Donlar. “Care to join me?”

Shrugging her shoulders, the Kraylor appeared to say she had no choice so would just comply. 

As soon as they entered the corridor and started to make their way towards the turbolift, Donlar turned to him. “Captain, your people have advanced medical technology, correct?”

Nodding somewhat, he replied to her. “It’s pretty advanced.” James looked down at her, “Why?”

“I’ve been considering something and it will come as a personal favour.” Donlar replied. “Do you have the ability to wipe someone’s memory?” She asked as they stepped into the turbolift. 

“I believe so.” He said and then told the computer to take them down to the shuttlebay. “Again, why?”

She looked at him as the cart moved down. “I want you to wipe my memory. I cannot deal knowing my involvement in all of this.”

“Taking the plausible deniability route then?” James asked. 

“Something like that.” Donlar grunted. “I don’t think I can live knowing what I know. I feel if you can do that and get me back to your ships before my people suspect something then I may be in the clear.”

Any other time, James believed he would have spoken at more length over it with her. By her knowing about Omega it meant that she could go back and change her people’s mind regarding its use while on the other hand, he understood where she was now coming from. Not knowing everything would protect her more. He wished he could ask for a memory wipe so he could be in the clear. Instead of debating the concept with her, he just agreed to it and suggested they visit the EMH after checking in on the chamber. 

Realisation then smacked him in the face. He truly was doing all of this alone. 

Approximately twenty minutes later and returning to the bridge alone after inspecting the harmonic resonance chamber and leaving Donlar in sickbay with the EMH, James took his seat back in the middle of the room. “Where are we at with our plan?”

“Already sir.” The ECH announced. “You just need to give the word.”

Taking one more glance at the main screen, James fiddled with his wedding ring. For the first time nerves were now getting the better of him. Trying to push them to the back of his mind, he knew that once he took this action that he had probably broken half a dozen or more Starfleet regulations and protocols. Alongside that he would have attacked a sovereign state, an act that could cause more problems with the Kraylor later on for the Federation. Nevertheless the Omega Directive rescinded everything. “Show me the long range scans of this sector one more time.”

Appearing somewhat confused by the captain’s request, the ECH complied and changed the main screen to show the map of the sector. On it a number of local spatial bodies were highlighted, including star names. 

James stared at it for a moment and then asked them to check to ensure there were no other ships nearby. He couldn’t see the two Kraylor ships and the Annari vessel they had slipped by earlier. 

“No ships within range.” announced the ETH. The Ferengi hologram looked over her left shoulder. “It would appear the Kraylor ships have left the sector and the Annari were fed up of searching for them. Their last heading indicated they were returning to their empire at high speeds.”

“And what about Odyssey?” James wondered aloud. 

Shaking her head after taking a double check, the ECT confirmed they were not to be seen.

“Captain, we did come up with another strategy we would like to share with you.” The ECH offered. 

Looking at her, James appreciated the brief distraction. “Go on.”

“A computer virus.” announced the Emergency Engineering Hologram. The Vulcan male projection, who had helped him earlier in engineering, turned around to clarify their idea with James. “Starfleet has designed a number of them to search out any data connected to omega and destroy it. We have modified one of the viruses based on what we know about Kraylor computer interfaces.”

“And it won’t affect any system? I don’t want them losing any other research or it cripples any system, like life support.” James questioned. He understood why it was a good strategy and came under the directive’s instructions to remove all existence of Omega. They may destroy molecules today but that didn’t stop the Kraylors from trying again tomorrow. 

Shaking his head to alleviate the captain’s concerns, the Vulcan confirmed that it wouldn’t affect anything else. “The Kraylor will still be able to operate their base.”

“And once their cloak is down we can also scan for any boronite ore. If we see it then we can beam it aboard or use transporter code fourteen to destroy it.” added the ECH. “Can we proceed sir?”

Realising that the holograms were eager to get underway with their work, James knew his time was up. He had to make the decision now or never. Taking another deep breath, he rubbed his face as he leant backwards and then sat up straight. “Make it happen.” He ordered.

The holograms instantly returned to their stations and the plan was executed in a quick and efficient manner. First the ship disengaged its Kraylor cloak, it then entered the atmosphere of the moon, after ignoring hails from the Kraylor base the antiproton beam was activated. As its power was increased it forced the base’s cloak to fail. Immediately scans were undertaken and omega was beamed on board, followed by the boronite ore. The computer virus was uploaded and once confirmation was through that it had removed all data of omega from their computer banks the mission was complete. 

“Move us out of here and head to some open space. Far from here so if the process goes wrong we’ve got enough space to jettison the chamber, fire the torpedoes at it and jump to high warp..” James ordered.

“Aye sir, there’s plenty of free space between here and a class nine nebula. At warp seven we can be there in less than twenty minutes.” suggested the holographic Trill pilot. 

“Take us there.” James ordered in a solemn tone. What they had just done to the Kraylor was now starting to eat away at his thoughts, he was trying hard to ignore it all and focus on the mission at hand. They were not out of the woods yet. “I’ll go down to the chamber and supervise the process. Keep an eye out for any ships. I’m sure the Kraylor base may attempt to call for help.”

Rising from his chair, James just wondered if they would get out of this unscathed.

Knowing they may not get out of this situation unscathed, Commander Cambil considered her options as she returned to the bridge. She was trying to think of a creative solution to delay the Kraylor, but she couldn’t. Walking out into the main command area for the ship, she was surprised to see every senior member of staff there. It was a rare sight but she just accepted that somehow they found out what was going on and returned to the bridge. 

“Report.” She called over to Counsellor Duncan.

Duncan rose from the captain’s chair with a sort of ease and coolness that she had not noticed about him before. His whole movement appeared to be quite relaxed as if he was a natural in command. The counsellor and chief diplomatic officer turned to her. “The Kraylor are just sending the same message to us on repeat. I’ve not replied yet, I thought you might like to have that honour.” He said, smirking his boyish grin. 

Appreciating the gift he left her, Cambil moved to stand in front of the captain’s chair as Duncan took his usual seat while Karyn sat in Cambil’s usual one. She was taking her role as acting first officer seriously. Before Cambil had chance to speak up, her former protégé spoke up. 

“Ma’am, those two Kraylor ships are of the same design but I am detecting that they have more fire power and maneuverability compared to the one we rescued.” Lenjir announced from the tactical station.

Tomaz, spoke up behind the Tiburon. “That’s typical for the Kraylor. They’ve used the same ship design for almost thirty years now. They can reconfigure their ships for what type of specific mission it will undertake.”

“A fascinating approach to starship design.” T’Rani remarked from the helm. “Though logical of course, especially as they have had to deal with the Annari blockade around their world. A singular design means they can focus resources on other matters.”  

Deciding to respond to their new arrival, the first officer looked down to the man sat next to T’Rani. “Lukiz,” Cambil said, grabbing the attention of her operations manager, “hail the Kraylor lead vessel.”

“Channel open.” Jen announced after a computer beep happened, indicating they were live to the Kraylor over subspace. 

“Kraylor vessels, this is Commander Cambil Bexa of the Federation starship U-S-S Odyssey, please respond.” She took a breath and decided to remain standing as she tugged on the end of her jacket. Her posture was upright and strong. She knew she would have to make some bare face lies to them.  

The wide holographic viewscreen opposite to her changed from showing the view of the two Kraylor vessels, which were almost the same as the ship they had rescued, to that of a Kraylor man. He had thick, curly black hair with one whisper of silver and grey curling in the middle. Clearing his throat, he spoke up. “I’m Captain Jerek of Kraylor escort ship one-seven-four. You have one of our long range survey vessels in your tractor beam and our scans indicate its crew is on board your vessel. I’m assuming you are here responding to their general distress call?”

“We are.” Cambil answered honestly. “Your fellow comrades are being treated in my sickbay and we are seeing to the repairs of the vessel.”

“However much we appreciate your efforts in saving our people we ask that you hand them and our property over to us. We can take over from here.” Jerek said with strong confidence in his voice and body language.

Cambil was about to answer when Doctor Sylvex spoke up instead. “Captain Jerek, I’m Doctor Slyvexs, the chief medical officer for the Odyssey. I’m curious, have your people heard of the Torothka virus?” 

Jerek appeared a bit stunned with the interruption from the Denobulan doctor. “No?” He replied, almost trying to work out what she was going on about. 

Slyvexs looked between Cambil and Reyas, giving them a look to follow her lead in where she was going. “Well I can tell you it’s quite a nasty little bug.  I understand the stomach cramps are unbearable, although some say the rash is worse. However in recent years there’s been one strain that has led to short term memory loss.”

Getting annoyed with the rambling, Jerek came across frustrated with Slyvexs’ babbling. “And your point doctor?”

“I just need you to be made aware that we may have found a strain of it within our ship’s population.” Slyvexs answered. “Now most of our people have the vaccination for it in their system, but what worries me the most is the possibility of it infecting your fellow comrades.” She came to stand now next to Commander Cambil and spoke further. “Now, we appreciate how important it is for you to have your crew back. We understand that they have been through such an awful turmoil already with what happened on their ship and we really do want to get them back to you. Don’t we Commander Cambil?” Slyvexs looked at the Bajoran woman, giving her a look in her eye that indicated for her to play along.

“Oh yes, absolutely. We really feel bad for them. We only wish to help.” Cambil assured Jerek. 

“We’ve only just discovered the strain and we need more time to determine how it would affect your people and how we can modify our vaccine to help them. We would hate to return them to you sick and they end up infecting your entire population.” Slyvexs remarked. 

Duncan then stood up to join in. “In fact from what we’ve heard from Captain Donlar is that your people are almost close to beating your adversary, the Annari. We would hate for this virus to stop that from happening. Captain Donlar, herself, right now is in isolation and resting while we conduct detailed scans of your people to ensure they have not been infected. She has given us her full authority to cooperate with this matter.” 

“I wish to speak to Captain Donlar.” Jerek demanded. “I want her to confirm this in person.”

“I’m afraid our isolation protocols prevent patients from leaving our decontamination areas.” Slyvexs said. “From the last report I checked, she won’t be available for another two, maybe three hours. Can we ask for your patience until then? Your people’s health, as much as ours, is on the line here.”

“Think about the lives you could be putting at risk Captain Jerek if we return your people back to you.” Cambil said as she joined in with the cover up. “I promise you, everyone of your people are being treated like guests on our ship. We are making them as comfortable as we can.”

“And check your historical database.” Lieutenant Tomas said as he spoke up from the mission ops station. The Barzan man looked to his superiors who gave him the green light to join them to add further to the farce. “It was a Federation starship that aided your people in developing your cloaking technology when it put them at risk of being a target by the Annari themselves. We have no ill intentions against your people, if you pardon the pun.”

“My engineers that are already on your ship are repairing its systems so it can get underway on its own power and my captain…” Cambil said, trying to come up with a ruse as to why McCallister wasn’t around. She was hoping he would return soon. “…he is currently undertaking a risky mission to save your people.”

“How?” Jerek inquired, confused with that statement. “Why is he not with you?”

“He was off the ship when we discovered the potential outbreak and he is travelling to a nearby world. He is searching for the spores we may need to grow further antiviral proteins. I may need them if this becomes a pandemic among not only your crew but ours too.” Slyvexs interjected with.

Sighing heavily, Jerek looked off screen and then back to the Starfleet crew. “It would seem we have no other choice, but we will remain with you. I would like updates on the status of our people when they have completed their time in your decontamination area and what you plan to do with treating them.”

“We were just about to begin the full process when you called, so we will let you know as soon as we can. Cooperation here is key, so thank you for being understanding. Odyssey out.” Cambil said with a smile and then nodded to Jen to cut the channel. 

“Do you think they bought it?” Reyas asked everyone. 

“I hope so.” Cambil said as she turned to look at the Denobulan doctor. “The Torothka virus, really?”

Shrugging her shoulders, Slyvexs smirked at her ingenuity. “I had a feeling that if we needed to buy the captain some more time then we needed a reason why they couldn’t have their ship and people returned to them yet. A nasty virus seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Appreciating her ingenuity, Cambil praised her chief medical officer. “Well done doctor. I owe you one.”

Slyvex looked at Duncan and Tomaz, “My thanks to you both gentlemen for your back up as well. Lieutenant Tomaz, that extra bit about our common history was a nice touch.” 

“You’re welcome ma’am.” The strategic operations officer said with a proud smile on his face for thinking so quickly. 

“I quite enjoyed Max’s attempt at pulling on their heart strings in making them believe they would die of a terrible plague instead of defeating their life-long nemesis.” Reyas remarked.

“Sometimes diplomacy needs a dash of psychological blubber to help push things along.” Duncan said confidently. Turning to Slyvexs he did question her though about one thing she said. “Memory loss is not associated with the Torothka virus though.”

Still smirking, Slyvexs raised her eyebrows and whispered her response. “It occurred to me that whatever the captain is doing, it has something connected to what the Kraylor crew had dealt with before. We may not want them going back and saying what we told them is not the truth. If you get what I’m saying. This may come back to bite us on the rear and cause further diplomatic problems with the Kraylor. I’m only trying to protect the Federation’s reputation.”

“Doctor, are you suggesting we wipe these people’s recent memories?” Cambil asked in hush tones. “That’s totally against regulation and surely against your ethical code of do no harm.”

“Didn’t the captain say that whatever we are undertaking that all protocols and regulations are rescinded?” Slyvexs countered back with. “He has already overridden my medical regulations, ones that I would normally uphold with my own ethical code. That said, my other personal ethical code is telling me that we are dealing with something bigger than all of us. For our captain to go off and what appears to be a wild goose chase to us, means that there is something so huge that we need to give him the benefit of the doubt and trust him.” 

Sighing at hearing that comment again, Cambil looked at Reyas and she was soon reminded of her chat with Commodore Bennet. He ordered her and all of them to get behind whatever James was undertaking. Relenting at her natural instincts to tell Slyvexs off, Cambil agreed with the idea. “I hope we don’t end up regretting any of this.” She said in a low volume. “Karyn and I spoke with Commodore Bennet and he ordered us to do whatever it took to protect the captain’s flank and support him. So I suppose the order stands.”

Counselor Duncan looked at Cambil, “We are going to have to conduct those scans and tests though. We need to follow through with this to make the ruse seem believable.”

“One of the delights of being chief medical officer is that I have the total discretion to use my professional judgement to declare a medical emergency if I believe we may be in danger. Even if the evidence is minor, the saying ‘best to be safe than sorry’ comes to life in this case.” Slyvexs remarked. “I could later log it that a medical tricorder malfunctioned and gave me the wrong data from the scan I took. Tricorders do have a terrible knack in breaking down sometimes.”

“I’ll leave it under your discretion then doctor and I suggest Max helps you out in dealing with our guests.” Cambil said, still concerned that their cover up could be unwrapped if they weren’t careful enough. She then looked at everyone else as Slyvexs and Duncan left the bridge to begin working on their new medical problem. “But if the captain doesn’t return in time then we need a back up plan to deal with our Kraylor problem. Ideas anyone?”

Tomaz took the initiative and spoke up. “Ma’am, I do have one but it is quite extreme and would require Commander Tremt’s abilities or lack thereof. If our orders are to support the captain whatever it takes then it may just help us in the long term as well.”

The chief engineer, who was sitting at the engineering station, looked up from where he was. He had been coordinating repair teams who were on the Kraylor ship they rescued before the other Kraylor had arrived. “That sounds ominous.” He said in Tomaz’s direction. 

“I’m intrigued.” Cambil said.

Looking at his superiors, Tomaz went on to share his idea and when Cambil had finished listening she approved it straight away. As those who would be involved implementing Tomaz’s plan departed from the bridge, Reyas leant in to Cambil as the Bajoran woman sat down in the captain’s chair. “See that wasn’t too bad was it?”

“So far.” Cambil sighed. She didn’t find any of this sitting comfortably with her. “Let’s hope we can keep up this deception long enough.”

Observing the last of the omega molecules be neutralised, James moved his vision from the small scope that had been set up as the bright turquoise hue of the surviving molecule eventually faded out from existence. The procedure was done and the threat was finally over. He couldn’t quite comprehend what he had just witnessed. The destruction of the most powerful molecule to exist. It was something so unreal that he couldn’t put any words to the whole experience. 

A sense of relief flooded over him as he gave out a huge sigh as sat down on the deck floor. “Computer,” He said as he rubbed his face. The sense of exhaustion was overwhelming but he knew he wasn’t completely done with the directive. “Scan the harmonic resonance chamber, confirm complete neutralisation process of the omega molecule.”

“Scan complete, there is no sign of the omega molecule.” The computer said after a melodic chime. 

“Run a level four diagnostic on the chamber and repeat the scan.” He ordered. James had to be sure this was complete.

The computer beeped in response as it undertook its own self-check and ran the scan again. He looked around the shuttlebay before closing his eyes. He wasn’t one to meditate, in fact he found the whole ordeal ridiculous but he remembered walking in Captain Adelaide taking a moment in her ready room after a very strenuous mission had ended. She had always insisted that taking a moment to compose oneself helped her to remain calm and focussed. 

The computer beeped and spoke up (interrupting his calmness), “Diagnostic completed. The Harmonic Resonance Chamber is operating within normal parameters. Scan complete, there is no sign of the omega molecule.”

Tapping his combadge, James spoke over the intercom. “McCallister to sickbay, doctor report.”

“The procedure was a success. Captain Donlar’s short term memory has been wiped and she is currently asleep.” The EMH shared.

“Thank you doctor. Have the captain placed on the Chieftain. McCallister out.” James tapped his badge to close the channel. Getting off the floor, he tugged on his jacket as he headed to main engineering. 

“That’s the last of the connections.” reported the Caitian holographic engineer. “The cloak is disconnected.”

“Thank you, have it transported to the Chieftain.” McCallister said in a nonchalant tone. He was currently at the main command station in engineering, inputting a range of codes while the engineering holograms undertook his orders. “Once it is secure on the shuttlepod, then will you all deactivate yourselves.”

The holograms nodded as they complied with their orders. “Computer, initiate fractal encryption code omega one and lockout the main computer.”

“Voice authorisation clearance is required.”

Sighing that everything required his clearance codes, James responded back. “Computer, this is Captain James Preston McCallister. Confirm computer lockout request, authorisation McCallister-one-seven-alpha-tango.”

“Acknowledged. Ship-wide computer lockout in effect.”

Knowing that the ship’s computer core was now heavily encrypted meant that if anyone ever got its hand on it then they would find it difficult to break the lockout and discover what the Aquarius got up to. That said, James had further plans to prevent that from happening. Feeling that he was now complete, he left engineering and on his route to the bridge, gave out further orders to the computer. 

“Computer, deactivate all command functions except the auto-destruct sequence and prepare to transfer all control of the Aquarius to the Chieftain. Authorisation, McCallsiter-one-seven-alpha-tango.” He commanded as he got into the nearest turbolift and took himself to deck one. 

“All command functions suspended except the auto-destruct sequence.”

“Sickbay to Captain McCallister. Captain Donlar is on the shuttle, still asleep.” The EMH said after the intercom chime went off in the corridor.

“Thank you doctor, please deactivate yourself now.” McCallsiter commanded as he stepped out onto the bridge. 

Instantly the ECH recognised his presence and turned her attention to the captain’s arrival. “Sir, have you disabled all of the ship’s primary control systems and encrypted the main computer?”

Nodding, James confirmed he did. 

“How come?” The ECH inquired. 

“Omega has been neutralised, so we must ensure that all information to this mission has been removed.”  James justified it. 

Confused as to why he had done that, the ECH asked. “Sir, Starfleet has strict protocols in the deletion of all of our computer banks in regards to a mission related to the Omega Directive. Your actions are not warranted.”

“I know, but I want to be sure there is nothing that will come back and cause us any issues later on.” James stopped, he didn’t understand why he was explaining himself to the holograms. 

For a moment the ECH, the ENH and ETH processed what the captain had explained to them. A second later they all stood to attention with the ECH remaining as their leader. “Then captain as per the directive, you must now delete our programs. It has been our honour to serve with you.”

Appreciating the gesture and realising he was too quick to judge them, James smiled at them all. “You all have performed your duties exemplary, for that I am thankful.” 

All of them smiled. 

“Computer, delete all Emergency Holographic Programs on board the Aquarius, including their backup modules. Authorisation McCallister-one-seven-alpha-tango.” James instructed. 

Complying with his direction, the computer deleted the holograms across the ship. As it did that the photonic beings on the bridge fizzled out from life. Feeling some regret that he ended their short lives, James sighed heavily again. An act he was finding himself doing too much of lately. Still wanting to make sure nothing was left, he walked over to the engineering control, released the lockout to the console. After accessing the optical processor control he started to charge the secondary power relays. The process would take almost two minutes as there were only a handful of holographic emitters installed on the ship. By destroying the holographic systems, no-one could restore anything from the emergency holograms. 

Starting to feel that he had almost wrapped up every loose end, he accessed the ship’s navigational controls and had the ship begin a course towards the class nine nebula. “Computer, begin auto-destruct sequence authorisation McCallister-one-seven-alpha-tango. Override further confirmation with the omega-alpha-one clearance.”

Recognising that the ship was still under the omega directive, the computer acknowledged James’ orders to by-pass the requirement of other senior officers to confirm the self-destruct program was activated.  “Command authorisation accepted. Awaiting final code to begin autodestruct sequence.”

“This is Captain James Preston McCallister, destruct sequence omega one. Ten minutes countdown…” James paused, he would have the ship interlink with the arming sequence of the gravimetric torpedoes in the armoury to detonate alongside the auto-destruct program. This was it. One breath and then he said, “Enable.” 

“Warning. Self-destruct sequence has been initiated. Auto-destruct in ten minutes.”

Taking one more glance around the bridge, James smiled in appreciation for the ship’s sacrifice to ensure that what he did here to ensure the Omega Directive was achieved would never be shared with anyone else.

He hastily left, making his way down to the shuttlebay. This would be his last walk through the corridors of the Aquarius.  His mission was finally over. He could return home. 

USS Odyssey (NCC-80000),
Gradin Belt, Delta Quadrant
Stardate: 76478.98

Noticing the proximity alarm going off, T’Rani looked at the helm controls and had to double check what her sensors were detecting. The moment that she had registered was confirmed, she looked over her right shoulder towards Commander Cambil. “Commander Cambil, sensors are detecting the arrival of the Chieftain.”

Cambil, who was leaning against the mission ops station discussing their plan B with Lieutenant Tomaz, stood up and walked over to the helm. “As in the Aquarius’ type-ten shuttlecraft?” She clarified with the Vulcan pilot.

“Indeed.” T’Rani said, with a raised arched eyebrow. 

It was clear she was just as perplexed as Cambil was with the arrival of the small shuttle and not their support craft. “Scan for the Aquarius.” The Bajoran commander ordered as she made her way over to the centre seat.

Shaking her head, T’Rani reported that she could not see any sign of it. 

Lieutenant Commander Jen spoke up from the ops station shortly after. “Ma’am, the captain is sending an encrypted message to us. He is requesting permission to dock and has a set of instructions for Commander Hunsen, myself and a separate set for Doctor Slyvexs. Again those orders are protected and are marked for our eyes only.”

Wondering what he was doing, Cambil told Jen to proceed with the captain’s orders and to share the rest of the information with those he had selected. Glancing over to Karyn Reyas at the science station, the two women shared the same expression of frustration of not knowing what James was playing at. 

“Cline, have the Kraylor reacted to the Chieftain’s arrival?” Cambil asked the security chief. 

Checking his tactical readings, the Tiburon shook his head. “No sir.”

“Send a message to them, informing them that our captain has returned.” She ordered. “I don’t want them opening fire on him and making this a more tense and complex situation then it already is. 

Once confirmation that the message had been received, Cambil relaxed and just wondered how much she would know now. Her guess was it would be very limited. 

Stardate: 76479.2

“Captain’s log, stardate seven-six-four-seven-nine-point-two. Encrypt log entry. The Omega Molecules have been dealt with and we can start to put this mission behind us. We just have to deal with the Kraylor and I have to say I am impressed with the ingenuity of my crew in dealing with a situation that could have gone extremely wrong. This will be my last encrypted log concerning the Omega Directive. The classified datafiles will now be destroyed.”

Opening her eyes slowly, Donlar was blinded by bright white light and soon realised she was in a room that she did not recognise straight away. 

“Easy.” A friendly, soft and feminine voice said calmly. An alien woman with huge blonde hair approached her with a medical tricorder. “It’s good to see you looking a lot better Captain Donlar.”

Looking at the stranger who wore a blue uniform, one she didn’t know, Donlar then looked to the other people near here. Another man wearing the same uniform from a different race was nearby. He had short brown hair. Behind him was another man of the same race, this one wearing a pure red top. Another woman stood next to him wearing the matching uniform but had ridges on her nose that made her almost look like she was a Kraylor, but she didn’t have any chin gills. 

“Where am I?” Donlar asked. 

The group all looked concerned as they exchanged looks with one another. The man in the red uniform stepped forward. “You’re on board the Federation starship U-S-S Odyssey. I’m James Preston McCallsiter, her captain. We responded to your distress call.”

“These kind people have been looking after you.” spoke a familiar voice. Donlar blinked and noticed another figure. A tall Kraylor man in an armed service uniform. She smiled. “Jerek, what are you doing here?”

“Responding to your distress call as well.” Her comrade remarked. “How are you feeling?”

“Dizzy, my head hurts like hell. What happened to my ship? My crew?” She asked, sounding almost panicky. 

“Please be calm.” The first alien woman who spoke to her instructed as she placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve gone through quite an ordeal.”

“Your ship was heavily damaged from some sort of explosion.” mentioned Captain McCallister.

“We arrived first and saved your crew.” spoke the man who looked a lot younger than McCallsiter and wore the blue uniform. “We’ve already introduced ourselves to you but your crew became ill.”

His colleague, the tall alien woman with blonde hair explained further. “I’m Doctor Slyvexs, the chief medical officer. A strain of the Torothka virus has infected your people. We’ve treated you all and everyone is okay.”

Looking at Jerek for clarity, Donlar was pleased that he smiled and nodded with approval. “These people have taken care of you all well and now you are free to return to your ship.” Jerek spoke.

“Why can’t I remember anything from it all?” Donlar quizzed as she sat up right completely. 

“This particular strain affected short term memory, I’m sorry but my medical staff did their best to do what we can but we were not successful in restoring your memories.” explained Slyvexs. 

Looking between them all, Donlar was not sure what to say or do now. “Well I can only express my thanks to you and your crew then Captain McCallister.”

“You’re welcome.” He answered. “We will leave you in the capable hands of Doctor Slyvexs and Counselor Duncan to see you and your crew off our ship. We’re glad we could help.”

Donlar bowed her head graciously to him and he soon left with the other woman that hadn’t said a thing during their conversation.

Returning to his ready room, the ride in the turbolift with Cambil had been a silent one. The moment they stepped into the private confines of his office, he ordered himself a cup of tea and a Bajoran deka tea for his first officer. Once both drinks materialised, he passed her the cup and took his own. 

Sitting down on the sofa, he knew they had a lot to discuss. She had decided to remain standing, so he took a sip and then looked up. Before he had a chance to begin she raised her hand to stop him. 

“James, before you say anything. I’ve got one thing I need to say.” Cambil said as she pulled out a small PADD from her trouser pocket and handed it to him.

Expecting it to be a ship status report, the colour from his face just drained from the moment he read the subject title. “You can’t be serious Bexa?” He questioned, almost stuttering as he spoke. 

“I am.” She assured him with a single nod. “I’m resigning from Starfleet, effectively immediately.”