Captain John Carter stepped through the doorway soon after the doors had split apart to allow entry, only to see a couple Captain’s in the office. Guess not many Commander’s have been promoted yet for the ‘Captain’s Orientation’ ceremony, he figured. He simply nodded his head to the two other Captains who had turned to see who else entered the room before nodding back to him. John then noticed another officer, a Commander with a blue collar, which they were either in the Medical or Science Division of Starfleet.

The Commander had looked up when the door opened and was visibly marking something on the Data PADD, using one of those writing utensils for those who still like the feel of writing. “Captain John Carter of the USS Centaur, I presume?” The Commander asked.

John nodded his head, “Yes, Commander.” He extended his hand out to the Commander but it was ignored by him, who got up from his desk, walked around it and went to the door to enter a code which magnetically sealed it shut. But there was more to it, John could hear a slight hum of a forcefield and the illumination in the room lowered to the point it was barely there. “This isn’t the Captain’s Orientation ceremony, is it?”

The Commander turned to look at the three before shaking his head. “No. It is not. Captains. This is something that me and my fellow colleagues of Starfleet Command have to do every time someone reaches the rank of Captain and obtains command of a Starship. What I am about to tell the three of you does not leave the room, otherwise you will face penalties that could lead straight to a Court Martial. Am I clear, Captains?”

All three of them ‘Acknowledged’ clearly to the Commander, aside from Carter adding, “What exactly are you going to be telling us, Commander?”

The Commander looked at John before returning to his desk where he pressed one button on the touch panel on his desk and part of the wall behind him opened up, merely a sliver the wall was, as it had hidden a screen behind it. Soon as the screen was completely revealed, it came on and one single symbol was displayed. The Greek Symbol Omega. “This, Captains, is the Omega Directive.” The Commander then goes on a lengthy explanation of what it means, what it is about, what pertains to the Directive, the orders and the secrecy of it, along with the dangers of the Omega Particle and what would happen if someone tried to control it and fails.

John had folded his arms across his chest half way through the briefing, only to frown at the end. “I don’t know about the other two Captains in here. But the Centaur is nearly a hundred years old, and certainly far too small to have any equipment on board to handle these…Omega Particles and destroy them.”

The Commander picked up his data PADD and did some tapping until he was on the page he wanted and skimmed it over. Something tells John that this Science Officer has no clue what a Centaur is. “Ah. I suppose considering the losses we had back in the Dominion War, it would make sense for a ship as yours to still be in service. Nevertheless, if you ship detects an Omega Particle, the Omega Directive will kick in and you will have to follow all the proper procedures that will be given to you. Originally and what you will have to do in your case, any Starfleet vessel that comes across an Omega Particle and the Omega Directive activates, they are to contact Starfleet Command and we send a specialized team along with a vessel equipped to handle and destroy the Omega Particle. But thanks to the USS Voyager, who had to come up with a way to destroy the Omega Particle on their own due to their special circumstances, most Starships in Starfleet are able to destroy the Omega Particle with the specs that we have in order to do so, thanks to Voyager. Of course, those specs will not be revealed until the Omega Directive is activated on one of your ships.” He said to the three Captains. “But if you do not have the resources to build it, the Omega Directive will compensate and give you exactly what you need to do. The Directive is redundant in these situations, because we cannot risk an Omega Particle destabilizing. The dangers and the risks are just far too high. So if your Omega Directive activates, follow the procedures you are given, to-the-letter. Do I make myself clear, Captains?”

All three replied with a ‘Understood’ to the Commander. “Good. And I know what you are all thinking. No. We do not currently have the technology to properly contain an Omega Particle and thus I strongly advise not to make that attempt. I know in your hearts, as Starfleet Captains, the nature of exploration and discovery, that you want to be the ones who finds a way to contain and harness the power of Omega. I have done this a hundred times with thousands of Captains and this briefing will not be my last, so believe me when I say this. Do not attempt to contain it. It must be destroyed.” With that, he turned off the screen, walked back to the door, and released the room and the magnetic seal. “You are all dismissed.”

John followed the other two Captains out of the room, his thoughts dwell on the briefing he just had and how he would react if that moment ever happened to him. But of course, in the briefing, it was said that the chances of encountering the Omega is extremely rare, so what are the odds of him ever coming across it? He smirked, thinking that he is betting that the rest of his career will go without a single Omega encounter. So he just shrugged his shoulders and followed the other two Captains to the real ceremony, his ship was undergoing a refit anyway, getting the next set of upgrades to keep her running as efficiently as possible in this age, so he might as well enjoy himself while he waited.

Captain John Carter stepped off the transporter pad to find Lieutenant Commander Henry Maxwell waiting for him, and looking rather frustrated. “I think you need to explain better as to why the hell the Centaur was sitting in empty space away from it’s assignment, that was sitting and waiting at the Providence Fleet Yards, Captain.” Maxwell said before he started leading the way out of the transporter room, leading Carter to Maxwell’s Office.

“As I explained, sir. Our ship is old, the sensors were acting up and we simply chased a ghost. But we have it all under control now. It was simply a maintenance shift that slipped up on their duties, that is all.” Carter explained.

Maxwell got to his desk, picked up a padd and lightly tossed it to Carter’s chest, who caught it with no problem. “Explain it to me, one more time, Captain.”

Carter looked at the padd and saw medical data on the four individuals, Vakai, Ryker, Sivol and Gomez, all four that experienced something that was absolutely extraordinary. Over thirty years of memories were stored in their brains, and yet they were only on the planet for merely fifteen seconds…or at least so they thought. The transporter room chief had told Carter that neither of the four left the transporter pad, they just stood there, with a complete blank look on their face for exactly fifteen seconds. Carter sighed as there was just no way to hide medical data like this from anyone, he was willing to keep the Away Team’s own reports as personal logs to secure and hide them, but he couldn’t do that with all the medical scans that were logged.

Carter then tapped on the padd, syncing it to the Centaur’s computer and then entering his codes to release the Away Team’s report before placing the padd back down on Maxwell’s desk, facing the man. “Those are the Away Team’s report on their mission. Long story short, sir. We encountered someone who we’ve never seen or met before. Species we can’t even classify, nor do we have a name to. They…as my First Officer explained, are very secretive and were curious about us and tested us…well tested them. That’s all I can say, sir because there is nothing else to say, aside that we weren’t gone for that long.”

Maxwell sighed and pushed the padd away. “I’ll read it later, and aside from the trip it took you to get to that empty part of space, no…you weren’t gone for very long but you still technically abandoned your post, your entire ship did.”

Carter nodded his head. “I assure you, sir. Their reports, and my own will clear things up. You should also have access to my personal log in regards to what happened.”

Maxwell nodded, “Again, later. Right now we have an even bigger problem, which is why I am forgoing on writing a reprimand.” Maxwell stood up, turned towards the view port and looked out of it, towards the dry docks, the ships going by, the increased activity. He enjoyed seeing it all, space…ships…they were in a great era, and his yearning to explore was driving him crazy. But he had a job and in his family, they do the job without question. But he still enjoyed looking out the view port every now and then, watching the activity outside the station. “Do you know what the Omega Directive is?”

Carter blinked and swallowed. “I do.”

Maxwell then turned in place to looked back at Carter. “Silly question to ask, since all Captains and above are required to know. Believe me, when I got this posting as just a Lieutenant Commander, even I was surprised to learn about it.” He shook his head before pressing a button on the touch pad on his desk, a pre-programmed button to magnetically seal his door and raise a forcefield around his office. Even the view port of his suddenly darkened, unable to see through it. “We do not know what the hell is going on, Captain. But Omega Particles are appearing like crazy all over. The number is…I just don’t understand how…or why…but there are a lot and the Fourth Fleet has just been tasked to deal with it, as quickly as possible. It’s all hands on deck, Captain, that is why I’m not here to yell at you or reprimand you for abandoning your assignment at Providence Fleet Yards. Besides, I still need to review those reports and your logs, nevertheless, I just don’t see the reason at the moment, not when we’re in a crisis. If anyone attempts to contain Omega Molecules and they destabilize in the worst place, it would doom billions of lives and the worst part of it is, many Omega Particles are showing up. This is a crisis on a galactic scale! If we lose warp travel and subspace communications would be severely hindered. It would be like having the technology of communication in the palm of your hands but being forced to using smoke signals. We would have to invent new ways of travel but that could take centuries, if not decades. We simply cannot afford this at all.”

Carter sighed, remembering back when he was briefed about the Omega Directive and when he thought that he may never have to worry about such a thing throughout his entire career. Boy was he wrong. “What do you want the Centaur to do, sir?”

Maxwell sat back down at his desk and pulled up his holo-screen, then pressed at a holo button that flipped the screen for Carter to see. “Because of this magnitude, we can’t just send vessels with specialized personnel to handle this. We need every ship capable to deal with this situation and destroy those molecules. Unfortunately, your ship doesn’t have the equipment to do so.”

Carter nodded his head, “We could make room in all of our Cargo Bays for the unit that Voyager made, to destroy these molecules.”

Maxwell nodded his head, “We can do that, but we won’t be providing you those units. The USS Don S. Davis will have the option to do that, but considering that she’s been refitted with more cargo space than most vessels for the tasks that she has been doing for many years, she will be responsible in destroying the molecules in the area that she, and the Centaur, will be sent to. Your mission is to scout for the molecules for the Don S. Davis to pick up and destroy, and to protect the Don S. Davis while they do so.”

Carter frowned, “You expect trouble, sir?”

“I have to expect everything, Captain. As grand is it would be to harness the power the Omega Molecules have, we simply do not have the technology to do so. But that is not going to stop any other race out there from trying, and they will try, Captain. Worst part of it is, some may consider using it as a weapon. Think about it. What if we were having this major Omega event happening when we were dealing with the Hunters of D’Ghor?” Maxwell asked.

“They could of used it in key locations to prevent us from traveling at Warp, enabling them to do as they place outside the disrupted subspace.” Carter answered.

“Exactly. Now you have your orders, Captain. Do not, I repeat, do not reveal them to any of your crew unless under extreme circumstances.” Maxwell explained.

Carter nodded his head. “What about the crew of the Don S. Davis?”

“Unfortunately for Lieutenant Commander Kevin Walker, he will be stuck in Command with a large team of specialists who will deal with and destroy the Molecules. Most of his team and crew of Starfleet Corps of Engineers had been reassigned for other special tasks during this crisis. Any of his crew that remains, they are too going to be in the dark as your crew will be. So if you and Commander Walker have anything to discuss about the Omega Directive, it must be done in complete secrecy. Understand?” Maxwell explained.

Carter nodded again. “Understood, sir.”

Maxwell gave a single nod. “Good. Dismissed, Captain.”

Both the USS Centaur and the USS Don S. Davis have arrived in the Fero Psi Sector, just several light years from the Devron Fleet Yards. Here is where their sensors were picking up the most Omega Molecules in the region, and here is where the Centaur will go out to double check on those readings. The Sector had a black hole many light years away, and none of the systems in the sector were too close to it to cause any trouble for them, but it is possible that the black hole is causing anomalies and sensor ghosts, thus the Centaur is there to deal with that problem alone while the Don S. Davis has the resources to create a single chamber. Their sensors had detected a large number of these molecules in the sector, thus is why the chamber was needed, but locating those molecules was the problem due to the singularity. Although there could be something else causing the sensor issues that they were having, besides the singularity. Nevertheless, they were there to get the job done and that is what they intend to do. Of course, only Captain Carter, Lieutenant Commander Walker, and the team of specialists on board the Don knew about the molecules. Everyone else has been left in the dark…

Especially Vakai, who Carter had been having take command of the Centaur ever since Vakai came on board. But this time, Carter was in charger and he was giving out all the orders, orders that he is expecting everyone to follow without question. It is times like these that are putting everyone on edge, forcing them to trust their Captain and to believe that whatever they were doing, was the right thing to do. But still…curiosity was in their nature, especially in Vakai’s, and he wanted to know. But every time Vakai asked, Carter shot him down and the last time he did, Carter threatened to relieve Vakai and have him confined to quarters. That moment there, was when everyone knew to refrain from asking questions and just do the job.

Carter stood there in the middle of the bridge looking at everyone. “Look, I know I am putting you all in a tough spot. But I wouldn’t do so if the situation wasn’t so dire. It is classified to only Starship Captains and above, and that is all I am allowed to say. Any more than that, and I risk Court Martial, or worse, as well as anyone here who finds out about the mission. Understood?” Everyone nodded their heads and added ‘Aye, Captain’ to it. “Good. I trust you all, and I know every single one of you will do the job that I ask. So please understand the situation I am in when I am not allowed to tell any of you of what’s going on. Just do the job, and it’ll be over soon.” Carter then took a deep breath and exhaled heavily before turning to Gomez and Gomo. “I need you two to go and retrofit photon torpedoes with gravimetric charges, at least five of our current payload and if we need more, I will let you know.”

“Aye, sir.” Both Gomo and Gomez replied before leaving the bridge together.

Carter then pulled out a small padd from his right pocket and handed it to Vakai. “These are the readings that we are looking for. Sensors are having a difficult time with the singularity near by, or something else in those star systems is faking it. Either way, we need to go to each star system in this sector, find these readings, locate their exact position and how many there are. If there is a small cluster, we will use the torpedoes. If there is a large cluster, we will call the Don. Understood?” And that was all it was, just very specific sensor readings that was on the padd, nothing more, no details as to what those readings meant or what source they were.

Vakai took the padd and frowned when he looked at them. “Sir-”

Carter placed a hand on his shoulder. “Vakai, please. When you become Captain, and I know you will. You will understand my position. But until then, please…just do what I ask.”

Vakai looked into his eyes and he could read that Carter was being sincere, and he knew he could trust Carter too. Vakai nodded his head, “Understood.” He spoke softly before going over to the main science station and worked with the Science Officer on locating those readings.

Ryker turned in his seat towards the Captain. “Where to, sir?”

“Display the sector map on the main viewer.” Carter ordered, and Ryker did just that, the five star systems coming up along with the black hole off to the far left corner, as well as the names to them all. Black Hole, or as designated, Jck 6-9748. Then there was the Oro System, Ioleuth System, Rey System, Rubieta System and lastly the Gydis system. Closest one from their position was the Gydis system, and that was the one they will go to first. “Plot a course to the Gydis system, and inform the Don that we will report to them as soon as we find out where this large cluster is.”

Ryker and the Comms Officer both acknowledged, and Ryker went to plotting the course. “Speed, sir?”

“Maximum warp.” Carter ordered which got people’s attention but they knew from what Carter could say, that the situation was dire.

“Aye, sir. Maximum Warp. We will arrive in the Gydis system in approximately ten minutes.” Ryker replied.

[Meanwhile]

[IKS Shadriq]

Vok stroked his goatee as he sat there in his ready room, going over the data that they had been accumulating ever since his intelligence officer finally figured out how to hack into one of the Federation’s communication buoy’s. Took them a week but after they got it, Vok had been reading over the transcripts for months now, while other data came in that his intelligence officer went over. Any time they could find an opportunity to raid a colony and get out long before Starfleet could even respond, was the kind of opportunity they took every time, but not too often…they didn’t want to give away their secret.

Suddenly his door opened and in came his intelligence officer. “My lord.”

Vok growled, “Better be good to disturb my reading, Lieutenant.”

“Word from our base of operations. The shipyard has finished building another B’Rel. We now have six in our forces.” He reported.

Vok growled even more, “Tell them to stop production.”

He frowned, “But why?”

Vok looked up from his reading, looking directly at his officer. “Because we don’t have the man power to fill all those ships right now. Don’t you remember? We are biding our time, we are to be patient, more patient than the filthy Mokai could be. We will not fail to Starfleet, not like they did. But we need more time. And more soldiers to man our ships. So tell them to stop production.”

He nodded his head but still, he stood there.

“What?!” Vok demanded.

“Something else, my lord. Starfleet. There is unusual movement going on.”

Vok frowned, “So what. Starfleet have always been unusual.”

“But more unusual than normal, my lord. I swear…they are up to something.”

Vok sighed, “Unless it is important to our cause, I really do not care.”

“But what if it is.”

Vok growled, “You are trying my patience, Lieutenant!!”

“Yes, my lord.” He saluted and backed up but stopped. “I just need your permission, sir, to monitor Starfleet more closely. I guarantee, whatever it is that is going on, it could benefit us greatly.”

Vok glared at him. “And if you waste valuable time and resources, Lieutenant…you will find yourself out of an airlock. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, my lord!”

“Get out of my sight.” Vok ordered and finally, his intel officer was gone. Vok didn’t understand the man’s interests in this, but it did make Vok curious. He scrolled through the transcripts, going all the way down to the latest ones and began to read. It was vague but something odd was there. “What are you up to…Starfleet?”

-The Centaur and the Don S Davis have arrived in the Fero Psi sector, where their sensors are having a hard time pinpointing the Molecules. But once the Centaur finds them, how ever many there are, the Centaur or the Don will destroy them, depending on their size.

-Problem now is, a certain Klingon who had helped Starfleet some time ago during the whole Hunters of D’Ghor situation, is now hiding under cloak and tapped in, who has now become rather curious as to the strange movement. Worse, they’re not far away from the Fero Psi sector and the IKS Shadriq is a Vorcha Class vessel, a little more than a match for both the Centaur and the Ambassador Class of the Don S Davis can handle. If the Shadriq gets involved…they may have to use the systems in the sector as cover, least until the destruction of the Molecules is finished.

-Stay tuned for another Chapter of the Centaur!

[USS Centaur]
[Rubieta Star System]

After a lengthy search of the Gydis system, they couldn’t find any of the molecules there, but sensors were still going crazy about it in the sector, so they resumed their search by proceeding to the next closest star system, the Rubieta. Gydis only consisted of three planets, neither habitable and neither showing any signs of the molecules. Which to Carter, made sense. As far as he has read about them, the Omega Molecules can only be synthesized by a very rare and special ore, and any sort of natural Omega Molecules has not been heard of. But from the recent reports that Carter has been reading, of course reports that were only available to Captains and Flag Officers, there were Omega Molecules almost everywhere. The hell is going on? Now they were entering the Rubieta star system, a single planet and an asteroid belt, which the search is taking a little longer, as they’re scanning practically every asteroid in the belt for any traces of these molecules.

They were just about finished with the scan of the asteroid belt when one of the stations tasked to scanning each individual asteroid for those readings that Carter was only able to provide, began to emit an audible alert, indicating that it had found an asteroid with those readings. Carter wasn’t the only one who went to the station to inspect the sensor data from the scan, Vakai joined as well, both looking over the crewmate’s shoulder as they checked it out. Carter frowned before he reached over and tapped a few commands, commands that would send the sensor data straight to the tactical station, where Carter would walk to next, Vakai following.

“So we found our first…?” Vakai asked.

“Our first cluster.” Carter informed Vakai. “And we are going to destroy it, per orders of Starfleet.” He said as he stood there beside Gomo and went over the data again, only to sigh softly. “The cluster is small enough. Load up two of those special torpedoes, that should be more than enough to destroy the cluster.”

Gomo nodded his head. “Aye sir.”

Carter then stepped around the console and went back to standing in front of his chair. “Ryker, pull us away, bring us to maximum efficient range of our torpedoes. As soon as we fire them, I want us out of this system.” He needed to take every precaution, he did not want anything to go wrong.

Ryker, confused, nodded his head. “Yes, sir. Moving the ship into position and warp engines are on stand by.”

“Fire when ready, Gomo.” Carter ordered.

“Yes, sir. Ten seconds into firing position.” Said Gomo, “Five seconds.” The anticipation grew inside Carter, “Three…two…one…firing.”

“Engaging warp engines!” Ryker announced as he pressed the button and the ship jumped right into warp. “We are now at Warp Three.”

“In ten seconds, drop us out of warp.” Carter ordered, and those ten seconds went by slowly but once they did, the ship dropped right out of warp, just outside the system. “Status.” Carter asked when he turned to look at Gomo.

“Switching to a narrow band, focusing on the target.” Gomo paused as he was waiting for the sensor data to return, only then to look up and nod his head at Carter. “Target destroyed, sir. There appears to be no trace of this cluster.” Gomo then reset the sensors before squinting a little at the display. “But we are still getting those readings in this sector, and it doesn’t look like we put much of a dent in it.”

Carter frowned at that news before sighing. “All right. What is the next star system?”

Ryker turned in his seat, “That would be the Ioleuth System, sir.”

Carter nodded his head. “Good. Plot a course, maximum warp. I will be in my quarters for a brief. Vakai, you have the conn but contact me as soon as you discover another cluster. Clear?”

Vakai nodded his head. “Crystal, sir.”

Carter gave him a small smile before going straight to the turbolift and took it to his quarters, where he wasted no time getting there. He locked the door behind him and engaged the forcefield before going over to his desk. “Computer, begin encrypted log entry and have it sent directly to Task Group Commanding Officer, as well as forward it to the Task Force Executive and Commanding Officer.” The display showed an ‘acknowledge’ before saying ‘ready’.

“Captain John Carter of the USS Centaur. This is an encrypted log entry and my report on the current situation at hand. We located a small cluster of Omega Molecules and have destroyed them with two photon torpedoes with the payload per instructions. It was located on an asteroid in the second system in the sector that we are currently investigating, and there was no life signs, no signs of the molecules having been manufactured, at least not by the means that we know of. I feel this is worth reporting immediately. We are still detecting large traces of Omega Molecules in the sector, so we are still scouting the remaining systems for more. The Don S. Davis is on standby with a resonance chamber, as I feel we will be needing it. After this encrypted log is sent for your classified records, it will be deleted from the Centaur’s computer records. I don’t know what is going on, but I don’t like this. End of log.”

Carter watched as the computer finished the encryption and then sent it. Once done, Carter pressed a few commands and the log was completely erased from the computer core.

[IKS Shadriq]
[Deep Space]

Voq was reading over the recent transcripts, most making little sense during whatever crisis that is going on, when his intelligence officer barged right in. “You better have a good explanation, Lieutenant.”

The Intel Officer placed a large padd down, facing it to Voq and pointed at it. “Starfleet is after something, something very interesting. What’s more, there are two Starfleet vessels in the Fero Psi sector, which is not far from here, my lord. Our long range sensors just detected an explosion at this system,” He pointed at Rubieta. “The explosion consisted of a standard starfleet photon torpedo, but with a gravimetric charge. From what the sensors tells me, about eighty isotopes of it.”

Voq’s eyes went wide and grabbed the padd, looking it over. “Eighty isotopes for a gravimetric torpedo?” He muttered to himself as he continued reading.

“My lord, what ever it is that Starfleet is after, they apparently fear it.”

Voq narrowed his eyes, “Enough to destroy all traces of it.” He said softly.

“And what’s more, my lord. They are still in that sector, still searching. That can only mean one thing.”

Voq lowered the padd and looked at his officer. “Their sensors are detecting more of it.”

“Precisely! But we have yet to detect it ourselves, my lord. I recommend we go into this sector and watch the small ship, find out what they are up to, what they’re after.”

Voq grinned, “And how we can use it as a weapon.” He rose from his seat, quickly walked around his desk and let his heavy footsteps to his command chair gather his bridge crew’s attention. “My comrades. We now have a new mission falling upon us. A mission that could reward us a potentially powerful weapon. But first, we must acquire more information. Status on the cloak!” He barked.

“Cloaking generator is still engaged, my lord and continues to run at ninety-eight percent efficiency.”

Voq snorted, “Then we best be silent. Can not afford risks of this grand opportunity. Plot a course for the Fero Psi sector, and once we arrive, lay an intercept course on the small Starfleet vessel. Bah!”

It couldn’t be seen, but a Klingon Vorcha Attack Cruiser moved away from where it had been stationary, and then jumped into warp, en route to it’s next prey.

The Centaur arrived in the Ioleuth System just at the edge of it as their sensors had not only detected a single planet, but it also had life on it, as the one single planet orbited the Sun in what was considered ‘The Green Zone’. It was a little surprising, but not rare to find a star system with a single planet that orbited this zone and has a civilization on it. But there was something else that their sensors detected. In a best descriptive explanation, the system did have one single planet but it had three orbiting bodies. A Space Station is the third, most outer body that orbited the sun, where the planet with the civilization was obviously the second-middle body, where there was a Research Station the first orbiting body around the sun, though more in the Venus location than anything.

Carter stared at the Space Station that was on the view screen, his arms crossed over his chest as he felt the pit in his stomach growing. He was hoping to avoid this, but it looks like he will have no choice. “What do the sensor say?”

Gomo was the first to respond, “Analysis of the Space Station indicates that it is primitive. Life signs indicate that they are native from the planet in orbit of the Ioleuth star. Why they would build a Space Station this far away from their planet, is beyond me. If we were to compare it with the Earth’s Solar System, the station is right where the asteroid belt would be. That is quite far from their home.”

Carter let out a small sigh and thought… Maybe they are a Warp Civilization, so maybe there is no risk… Then he noticed small vessels docked with the station. “What about those vessels. Can you give me an analysis on them?”

This time Gomez responded, “They are small crafts, possibly five, maybe ten crew compliment. Twenty if there was an emergency. As for their engines, they have what appears to be impulse engines, although more like the kind Starfleet used to have, back on the NX Class vessels. Sensors are not picking up any matter-antimatter chambers or reactors and no nacelles either. I think it is safe to say that the Prime Directive would be applied here.”

Carter closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. Not what he wanted to hear at all. Now he has no choice, the next few words will certainly put the crew against him. Unless…. “I want the Bridge cleared. Now. Except for Ryker, Gomo, Gomez and Vakai.” Carter ordered, where he then noticed the looks he was getting. “That’s an order.” He said with a raised voice and now those who weren’t called hurried to the turbolifts and left.

“Sir?” Vakai asked.

Carter sighed and shook his head. “I can’t tell any one of you anything of what’s going on. Only this. Our mission is to follow the Omega Directive to the letter. I don’t know what is going on.” He chose his next set of words carefully, not at all going to say what was needed to create the molecules, “These clusters, like the one we destroyed before, are suppose to be incredibly rare, and they are not naturally made…at least…we’ve never seen them made naturally before. Point is, many of them are appearing all over the quadrant and we do not know why and the entire Quadrant, maybe even the entire Galaxy, is in danger.”

Vakai frowned, “Just because of these clusters?”

Carter nodded his head, “When you become Captain, Vakai…you will understand. I know I have already said that before, but trust me…what I have to say next, is going to test all of us…that is why when it comes down to it…I will be the one who pulls the trigger, understand?”

“What are you saying, Captain?” Gomez asked.

Carter turned to look at her then to Gomo. “I am re-assigning you to the Communications Station. I will man the Weapons Station from here on out.”

Gomo looked confused but he did as he was told and walked over to the Comms Station.

Carter then looked at everyone slowly before saying what he knows will put everyone on edge. “As of this moment, the Prime Directive no longer applies on this mission.” Carter said before he took his place behind the Weapons Station. “We will still avoid contact with the Pre-Warp Civilization as much as possible, but if sensors show any of those clusters, we will have no choice but to destroy those clusters, even if it means interacting with this Pre-Warp Civilization.”

“How can the Prime Directive not apply here?” Ryker asked.

Carter looked at him. “Because of the Omega Directive superseding the Prime Directive. I can only hope that this never happens again when either of you become Captain, because believe me…this is far harder than it looks. I am putting your trust in me in jeopardy and believe me, I want nothing more than to explain everything to you, but I just can’t.”

Vakai looked down at the floor as he thought for a moment before looking back at Carter. “So Starfleet does have some dark secrets, like the Romulan Star Empire or the Tal’Shiar. I thought Starfleet was different.”

Carter sighed, “It is different from them, you all know that Starfleet is much different from any other organization. But yes…like any other organization, Starfleet has some dark secrets. Now, are we going to have a problem continuing this mission or do I have to take full control of the ship on this console?”

Vakai looked at the others, all looking back at him as they exchanged looks. Vakai then closed his eyes as he processed the information before opening them and looking directly at Carter. “We will continue with the mission, but we will write our complaint into our reports to Starfleet Command.”

Carter nodded his head, “As you should, all of you. I believe that if the Captain is capable of trusting their crew, that the Captain should be allowed to brief only a select few of the situation and to keep it only between them and no one else. I know, each and every one of you here, are capable of understanding a classified mission when there is one, and I believe you are all capable of keeping it that way. But the Omega Directive is extremely clear on what I can and cannot say. If I say much more…to either of you…myself and those who have been informed, would be kicked out of Starfleet and imprisoned. So I hope that will explain the gravity of the situation and why it is so difficult for me to carry out my orders without any of you having my back.”

Vakai shook his head, “You misunderstood, sir. We have your back. But whatever happens beyond this point, we will write a formal complaint to Starfleet Command.”

Carter smiled then nodded his head again. “All right. So. I see that sensors did not detect any of the clusters on the Space Station. Ryker, take us to the planet so that we may scan it. We shouldn’t have to run a deep scan, these clusters, as many as there appears to be in this sector, should pop up quite easily. But we have to get close to each and every body, otherwise these…ghosts…will throw us all over the place.”

Ryker nodded his head, “Aye sir, plotting a course to the planet, and proceeding at full impulse. Our course will have us avoid the Space Station entirely, hopefully outside their sensor range and eye sight.”

“Sending you their sensor range right now,” Said Gomez. “It’s quite primitive so we should have to avoid it too much.”

“Got it, adjusting course.” Said Ryker.

Time will then pass, as the Centaur will approach the planet and run its scan, finding zero traces of the cluster on the surface. What Carter did find was the substance that was needed to naturally synthesize the Omega Molecule, but only traces of it, which told him this civilization had mined all of it already. They also found two small orbital stations, much like the ISS back in the Twentieth Century Earth. So they proceeded towards the Research Station, and that is where Carter became more worried. The Research Station was made out of the same materials as the Space Station, which indicated that it belonged to the same civilization. Problem was, it was quite bigger than the Space Station they encountered, about the size of a Regula Station, and the worse part of the problem was what was in the largest, heavily insulated room. Massive cluster of Omega Molecules, over several hundred million of them. Carter then instructed Gomo to tell the Don S. Davis to come to their location, nothing more. Thus, the Centaur waited for the Don to arrive.

Gomez had been keeping an eye on the station since they approached it and noticed some changes, such as their sensor system were changing to a more narrow band, aimed directly at the Centaur. “Crap.”

Carter turned, “I’m sorry?”

She turned to face the Captain. “I think we have been detected, sir.”

“She’s right,” Said Gomo as he stared at his display. “We are being contacted by the Research Station.”

Carter cursed under his breath again, “Do not answer. How long till the Don arrives?”

“Ten more minutes.” Ryker responded.

Vakai turned to Carter, “What do we do now? They know we’re out here.”

“We will just have to pretend we can’t hear them.” Carter said, that is until the intercom started spitting out an odd alien language. “What’s going on?”

Gomo looked to Carter, “They opened a channel, they’re speaking directly at us. The Universal Translator is working it out right now.”

“We are the Mankirans. To the Alien Vessel. We mean no harm. We just want to talk. Please respond. We know you are there. We know you can hear us. Why do you not answer? Can you understand us?”

“They may be Pre-Warp but they appear to be quite aware that they aren’t the only living beings in the galaxy. Otherwise they would be more afraid to talk to us.” Said Gomez.

Carter sighed, “I suppose it won’t matter anyway, because as soon as the Don arrives, we’re taking the cluster from them and we’re going to destroy it.” Carter shook his head at the thought of communicating with them but since the Prime Directive no longer applies, he might as well take this opportunity to do something he would of never been able to do under different circumstances. He looked to Gomo and then nodded his head, where he heard the chime in the intercom that Gomo had established a link with the open channel. Carter took a deep breath, “My name is Captain John Carter.” He decided to leave out the ship name and who they are with for the time being. “I apologize for our delay in responding to your communication, we were just…curious as to why a station like yours would be located between the Star and the planet in which your people came from.”

“So you have been to Mankira. Did they send you to ask about our progress?”

Carter shook his head, even though they were only communicating by audio and not by video on the main screen. “No. In fact, we never did contact your government on the planet. We…are just a survey vessel, we were only interested in the life that we saw here in the system. But we had no intention of contacting you, or interfering.”

“I see. Well we have this space station here because we wanted to learn more about our Star and see what kind of potential technology we could come up with our research. We were kind of hoping that we would come up with a break through in interstellar travel. I see that your vessel is quite unique from ours and we know you’re not from our system. How do you travel between star systems?”

Carter sighed, “I am afraid I cannot tell you that. I wish I could, but we’ve learned in the past that, showing or even telling a civilization, such as yours, about how we travel, comes with grave consequences. We’ve had seen civilizations take the knowledge that we shared and ended up destroying themselves with it. We took measures to make sure that never happens again.”

“I understand, Captain. But, you’re not just curious about the location of this station, are you?”

Carter smirked, “I guess you’re the clever one. No, we’re not. We detected a rather large cluster in your containment chamber and we were rather curious about it. We’ve never seen it before.”

“Ah yes! It is quite amazing! The large cluster we have consist of almost four hundred million molecules of…incredible energy. What is truly surprising, is that we only had enough material on our home world to create maybe five hundred thousand of these molecules.”

Carter frowned, “Then where did the three and a half million come from?”

“We truly do not have a clue, Captain! They just appeared, in our containment chamber. It is astonishing and absolutely incredible. It is going to solve our energy crises completely. We might even be able to power a starship of our own with just a single molecule. It might even be our breakthrough for interstellar travel.”

Carter sighed and shook his head. “What about the risks? Do you know what might happen if…it became unstable?”

“We have detected a slight instability but we’ve been correcting. In fact, we have the most brilliant minds here from Mankira and we’re several steps ahead. I believe we are capable of containing it.”

Suddenly, Carter’s display notified him that the Don was approaching. Which led to Carter letting out another sigh, “I am afraid that I was not completely honest with you, sir. But I do know what it is you have in your containment chamber and I am afraid that I have no choice but to stop you and your colleagues from experimenting with it any further.”

“What? What do you mean? What right do you have?!”

“Look, I wish I didn’t have to, but I can’t tell you the dangers that these molecules have. The risks are far too great, the damage that these molecules will cause is…” Carter paused and closed his eyes, refocusing himself to not say anything that would violate the Omega Directive. “I’m sorry, but I have my orders.”

“You can’t do this!! We need this! How dare you come here and-“

Carter took direct control of the communications at the Weapons station and terminated the comm link. “Sorry but further communication would just be a waste of time at this point. I am signalling Lieutenant Commander Walker on the Don to proceed.”

They watched as the Don got close enough to begin transporting the cluster from the Research station to the resonance chamber in their main cargo hold.

“Sir,” Gomo spoke up. “Message from Commander Walker. He says they got most of it but some how the Mankiran’s found a way to shield a small cluster from transport. The Don can’t get the rest of it anymore.”

Gomez frowned and started to run a detailed scan before turning to look to Vakai and then Carter. “They some how created a Transport Inhibitor around small clusters of it and now they engulfed the entire station. We can’t transport anything in or out of there.”

Carter cursed under his breath and looked over the detailed scan. “Damnit. We can’t use any weapons to disable the power source without destroying the station and possibly causing the remaining molecules to destabilize.” He smacked the edge of the console with the palms of his hands as he cursed some more under his breath. “Hail them.”

Gomo nodded his head as he went to re-establish communications with the station, which they accepted, so he nodded his head again to the Captain.

Carter looked at the station on the main viewer. “You need to turn your inhibitor field off.”

“Not without guarantee that you will return what belongs to us!”

“I can’t do that, sir. You have no idea how dangerous these molecules can be if they destabilize and they will destabilize.”

“You don’t know that!”

Carter slammed the palms of his hands on the edge of the console again. “Of course I do! My people tried it, nothing can contain the molecules, nothing can keep them from destabilizing and the damage they do…” Carter pursed his lips to keep himself from saying more. He recollected himself, “Sir…I am so sorry about your research and your people. But this will do far more harm than you realize, it will not help your people.”

“I don’t care! We don’t care! We want it back! You’re wrong and we will succeed!!”

“Damnit man, listen! You need to lower that field or I will have no choice but to destroy your station!” That got everyone, well the four of them left on the Bridge, to look at Carter.

“You would threaten our lives, over this?! Just because your people failed, does not mean we will.”

Carter shook his head, “The risks are far too great, sir! It cannot be contained!”

“You’re wrong. Return our property at once.”

Carter closed his eyes and lowered his head where he was silent for a moment, long enough for the Mankiran’s on the station to ask them to return the molecules, again. Carter opened his eyes and looked down at the Weapons Console. “You leave me no choice. May the lord have mercy on our souls.” He spoke quietly as he loaded up five of the special torpedoes and targeted the containment chamber in various points and sections in hope the torpedoes will destroy the molecules without destabilizing them and stranding them in this sector.

“Captain, we can figure this out.” Vakai told him.

But Carter wasn’t listening to anyone, as he felt that the Directive was giving him no choice. He must destroy these molecules, once and for all. Carter looked up at the view screen, “I’m sorry.” He said softly before pressing the fire button and two torpedoes were spat out, one by one, racing across space towards their target before making contact. Two torpedoes were definitely overkill for such a primitive station, and they were more than enough to completely destroy the molecules that remained in the Mankiran’s containment chamber, but they were enough to ensure that the Omega Directive was followed.

Carter then looked down at the console and read over the sensor data. “Looks like we got all of them. Sensors aren’t even detecting any more in the Sector.” He stepped away from the console, “You have the Conn, Lieutenant Commander. Have all Bridge personnel return to their posts. Inform me once the Don is ready to release and destroy the resonance chamber.” And that, Carter went to the turbolift and left the Bridge.

“I can’t believe he did that.” Said Gomez.

Ryker turned in his seat to look at Vakai. “You’ll tell us all about it…once you become Captain, right?”

Vakai looked to them and then shook his head. “I can’t even being to imagine what is so dangerous about these…molecules. But if I become Captain, and learn about it…I don’t think I will be able to tell anyone, much like our Captain can’t.”

Gomo shook his head, “Maybe I should of stayed a Non-Commissioned Officer. All this responsibility is giving me far too much stress.”

Vakai sighed and sat down in the center chair. “You and me both, Gomo.”

“You were a Non-Com?” Gomo asked.

Vakai smirked, “I meant the stress.”

“Ah. Yes, of course.”

[IKS Shadriq]

Vok sat there with his left hand on the edge of his arm rest, and his right hand stroking his thick goatee as he leaned so far forward in his seat while his eyes were staring hard at the main viewer. He saw everything and heard everything. Since these Mankiran’s had established an open channel with the Centaur, there was simply no attempts to encrypt the transmissions or secure the channel, so they heard it all. Of course, nothing incredible was given away since Carter did keep himself from saying anything that would have violated the Omega Directive, but it was enough to go on. “Molecules that have enormous energy potential…”

His intel officer leaned over the weapons console that was just behind the Commander’s chair. “Potential to be a powerful weapon!”

Vok smiled at the sound of that and grinned, a toothy grin that would give even some Klingons the shivers. “I think we have found the very thing that will help me revive the House of Duras…. Is it true, the larger vessel has most of the molecules on board?”

“Yes, my lord. We now know what to scan for and the large cluster of these molecules are located in the vessel’s primary cargo chamber.” Reported the science officer.

Vok stroked his goatee some more before standing up. “Status on their weapons and shields.”

“Smaller vessel’s weapons are powering down. Both vessels are completely defenseless right now.” Reported the weapons officer.

Vok grinned with a hearty chuckle. “Good. Power up our weapons and load the tubes. I want us hot and ready so that the second we decloak, we inflict as much damage on them as possible. But don’t destroy the larger vessel! I want those molecules for myself!”

“Yes, my lord! Targeting shield emitters and weapon ports.”

“Don’t forget their engines. I don’t want them warping away.” Vok ordered.

The weapons officer acknowledged.

[USS Centaur]

[Captain’s Quarters]

Carter sat there at his desk, leaning back into the seat with the back of the seat up against the wall, sipping on a bottle of green whiskey. He sat the bottle down on his desk when he heard the chime to his door go off. “Go away.” His voice was rough and filled with remorse.

But this person wasn’t going away, as they entered a security clearance, which unlocked the door and opened itself for the individual. It was the Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Summer Pearce, once again paying Carter a visit.

Carter snorted, shaking his head. “Starting to regret giving you my codes.” His voice still the same as he lifted the bottle up off the desk and took another swig.

She sighed and pressed the button on the door panel that closed and re-engaged the door lock before going over and grabbing the chair on the other side of the desk, dragging it over beside his chair and sat right on down beside him. She then took the bottle from him and took a swig herself, just waiting for him to spill his guts out.

Which didn’t take long at all, as the alcohol was sinking in, suppose it didn’t help that he was drinking on an empty stomach. “I killed a bunch of innocent people…primitive people…over a stupid old fraking directive. And I can’t tell anyone why.”

She looked to him, studying him for a minute before handing the bottle back. “You can tell me.”

Carter shook his head, “No. I can’t. Not unless you and I want to spend the rest of our lives in prison.” He told her before taking a swig.

She smiled, “You act like your quarters has ears.”

Carter looked at her with a frown, “Of course it doesn’t! I’ve checked my quarters hundreds of times.”

She then took the bottle from him and took a swig before saying, “Then you don’t trust me.”

Carter frowned deepened. “That is not what I said.”

She smiled and handed the bottle back. “Then you should be able to tell me. I’m capable of keeping confidential information to myself, you know. The things I know about you and your-”

“Ssshhhhhh!!!!” Carter shushed her loudly.

She laughed, “What? You said it yourself, you checked your room hundreds of times. No one would know about-”

“All right already!” Carter huffed as he glared at her before taking another swig, a longer one then handed the bottle back to her. He took in a deep breath and sighed heavily, “Starfleet has a directive called the Omega Directive. Apparently some scientist used to run experiments on some molecule called Omega, and it had enormous energy potential. It would have changed the way we powered starships for centuries. Problem was, the containment failed, the molecule destabilized and it exploded. The scientist and his team, dead. Worse of all, it had the worse side effect that Starfleet had no way of knowing. It destroys subspace. You know the Lantaru Sector? When it exploded, it created subspace ruptures extending out several light years. It was impossible to create a stable warp field, can only travel at sublight speeds.”

She sat there, staring hard at him before mouthing ‘Wow’ and then took a long swig herself before shaking her head. “Unbelievable. Just one caused that?”

Carter nodded his head. “Ever since Starfleet found out, they closed all records, suppressed all knowledge. If word got out to any other space faring civilizations…like the Romulans…the Klingons…any one of them…it would lead to disaster.”

She nodded her head, “So what did you have to do?”

Carter sighed heavily and sat the bottle down on the desk before slouching some in his seat as he stared up at the ceiling. “The Don was able to transport almost all of the molecules from this research station that we found. Problem is, they found a way to erect a transporter inhibitor field around their entire station and kept a small cluster. I tried to tell them what I could without telling the only four officers I left on the Bridge with me, without risking their lives of imprisonment.” He said as his eyes lost focus, as he wasn’t staring at the ceiling anymore but more like through it. “They wouldn’t listen, nothing I said would make them understand. And I even if I was allowed to tell them more, without the risks to my officers…I don’t think they would have listened either way…”

She could see where this was going, “So you had to…?”

Carter closed his eyes and sighed heavily once more. “I pulled the trigger.”

She blinked, “Oh.”

“I just sent several dozen of Mankiran’s to their deaths with no explanation as to how dangerous these molecules are. And none of their families are going to know what happened. But it will only be a matter of time till the planet finds out that their research station is no longer transmitting and they will likely discover that an alien vessel destroyed the station and then at some point, discover that it was a Starfleet vessel of the United Federation of Planets and they will be demanding for answers.”

She shook her head, “I suppose I am to assume that the Prime Directive didn’t apply here.”

He shook his head, “The Omega Directive supersedes it. The dangers of the molecule, the risk to billions, maybe even trillions of lives…is just too great.”

She then grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “Then you did the right thing, John.” She turned in her seat and looked directly at him, grabbing his attention as he turned his head towards her and looked into her eyes. “As you said, one molecule destroyed subspace in a radius of several light years, right?” Carter nodded. “Then if more than one of these molecules destabilized…a dozen…a hundred…thousands…you saved billions of lives. Like the Vulcans say, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

Carter scoffed, “Can’t believe you said that.”

She shrugged one of her shoulders. “To be honest, it’s no different from being a Doctor or any Medical staff on a starship. When we were at war with the Dominion, we had to choose who will get treated and who will not. Who can be saved and who cannot. When we were limited on supplies, it literally came down to a matter of choosing who we will save and who we will condemn to death.”

Carter sat up straight in his chair and sighed once more. “The War was hard on all of us, and you an I are the only few left on this ship that remembers how harsh it was. But this…this doesn’t make it any easier.”

She squeezed his hand, “It was never meant to. It was meant to prepare us for the worse, John. Not make it easy. It will always be difficult, no matter what. The point is, as long as we do it for the right reasons, long as we remember why we did it and for what cause…then our conscious is clean. Some day, you might have to answer to the Mankiran’s Government, then again, you may never have to. I’m certain Starfleet has some sort of protocol to handle this when the time comes.”

Carter smiled, “I suppose they do. Thank you, Summer.”

She smiled back and then wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his. Unfortunately, the passionate kiss only lasted for a few seconds when the ship rocked violently and the klaxon of Red Alert went off in their ears, along with Vakai’s voice piercing the air throughout the ship with ‘Battlestations! All hands to battlestations!’

-Captain Carter had to make the hardest choice and he made sure that it was him who did it. He was forced to destroy a pre-warp research station full of several dozen of people on board. Was really the only choice he had? Could he have done something else?

-Now, it appears that our little ‘rat’ has chosen to reveal themselves. The crew have no idea what the rat is after, but once they do find out, will they be able to stop a Vorcha Attack Cruiser from taking it? Or is the Centaur and the Don S. Davis outclassed? Stay tuned for the next chapter!

[A Starfleet Prison Facility, sometime in the future…]

The Prison Warden walked up to the cell and pressed the intercom button. “Hello prisoner 843128.”

There was a low growl that grew in intensity and volume before a slam on the door was heard. “My name is VOK!! You pink skin pig!” Came from the Klingon.

“Tsk tsk. I’m hurt. I thought we were friends.” The Warden smiled.

Vok growled some more before walking away.

Warden smirked then pressed a button to open a slot in the door. “I have something for you, something that you would be very interested in.”

“I don’t want anything from you!” The Klingon growled as he went up to the wall from across the door and pressed his ridged head against it as he slammed his fist against it. His mind was filled with pain and rage as well as blame. He was blaming himself for not listening to his Intel Officer when they had allowed the rest of the D’Ghor vessels to flee, back when they ‘pretended’ to be friends with Starfleet. He should of listened. Now his par’mach’kai and his unborn child are gone, his house dismantled, followers fled or dead, and he was found by Starfleet on a Federation colony as a broken man.

“I guarantee you, you will want to see this.” Said the Warden.

Vok growled again before he pushed himself off the wall and walked over to the cell door, yanking the padd from the Warden’s hand before reading it. He then noticed that it was a DNA report. When he was taken in, they took some blood from him, apparently it was standard medical procedure to make sure he wasn’t carrying some pathogen that no one in prison had been treated for, or whatever the reasons were, Vok didn’t really care. But what the report said shocked him the most.

The Warden chuckled heartily as he enjoyed watching such ‘great’ warriors fall into the pits of depression and despair, while he sealed the hatch shut and walked away with his guards.

Vok plopped down onto his bed while staring hard at the data before his grip tightened without even thinking of it, until the padd cracked and part of it he held shattered in his hand, the rest clattering to the floor. He tossed what he had left in his hand at the wall before placing his ridged head into his hands. “Everything I knew was a lie…” He spoke softly and now his thoughts turned to wishing he could have a warrior here to perform the Hegh’bat for him…as he no longer wished to be alive.

The DNA report basically said…that he was not related at all to the ones who made him believe that he was… That he was no descendant of what used to be a great house that became nothing but deceit and traitorous when it was helped by the Romulan Empire or the Tal’Shiar. He was nothing more than just a regular Klingon who dreamed the impossible, and what got him stuck in this prison for the crimes he had committed to achieve such impossible dream….

[Present Time]
[USS Don S. Davis]

Officer at the Weapons Station, his eyes went wide at what his sensors were telling him. He looked up at his Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Walker. “Sir! Centaur is under attack, Vorcha Attack Cruiser. It’s closing in!”

Walker quickly dropped his butt into his chair while looked at his tactical officer, “Shields u-” He was interrupted by a series of exterior explosions and the deck violently shaking him around in his seat, everyone else trying to either hold on to their consoles or the railing but some failing as they are tossed to the floor. The lights flickered and shifted hue to the standard Red Alert as it automatically went off when the ship detected that it was being hit by weapons fire.

The IKS Shadriq had decloaked while moving at attack speeds, firing a single torpedo to each nacelle of the Centaur along with a single heavy disruptor bolt to the port nacelle, causing the hull of the nacelle to shred open and warp plasma to spew out from it, while several smaller disruptor bolts lanced out from their weapon ports and struck the impulse engine and several weapon ports on the dorsal saucer of the Centaur. Then as it flew over the small vessel, it adjusted its trajectory towards the Don and launched another two torpedoes, one for each nacelle, followed by a heavy disruptor bolt, also contacting with the nacelle, which did the very same to the Don as it had to the Centaur, shredding the dorsal section of the nacelle wide open and warp plasma to spew out of it. Before the Vorcha began to fly over the Don, it also launched two more torpedoes right into the aft torpedo launcher of the Don, then as it flew over the Don, a series of smaller disruptor bolts left their weapon ports and hitting several dorsal phaser arrays as well as hitting the impulse engine a couple of times before completing its ‘Hit and Run’ tactic by finishing its flight over the Don and moving away.

Walker had eventually been thrown out of his chair after enough hits to the non-shielded vessel had caused one of the stations to erupt from a power overload and spewed sparks out of it after the explosion, following by a fire spewing from all sides that the damage control team closest to the Bridge had came up quickly and are currently spraying out the fire. He pushed himself onto his feet as he grunted, the low lighting for their current alert status had been replaced with emergency red lighting. “Report!”

“Multiple hull breaches on several decks. Warp engines took a major beating, the starboard nacelle is badly damaged, warp drive is offline, hell the warp core is offline. We’re running off of auxiliary power and batteries. I got shields up but they’re at sixty percent, we lost two dorsal arrays, two have been damaged, and the aft torpedo launcher has been destroyed. Phaser power is at eighty percent and the impulse engines are operating at seventy-five percent due to damage.” Reported the officer at the engineering station.

“Bloody hell. Who fraking fired on us?!” Walker demanded but before anyone could answer, the intercom chirped.

“Cargo Bay One to Bridge. What in the actual hell is going on?! Do you have any idea how fraking close we were to destabilization?!” Came from the specialist team leader.

Walker pressed a button on his left arm rest to reply, “I apologize but we had no idea that we were about to be attacked out of fraking no where.” Then he left the comm open so that the specialist team could hear the rest of the report.

“It was a Vorcha Attack Cruiser, sir. Transponder says the IKS Shadriq.” Reported the Tactical Officer. “And they’re swinging around!”

“Commander, you have to do whatever it takes to not allow the ship to take anymore weapons fire! We are on the edge of complete destruction here, not to mention complete chaos to half of Alpha and Beta quadrant! Or with the size of this cluster, maybe the galaxy!! The magnitude is just too damn dangerous, you need to get us out of here, now!” The specialist complained.

“I wish I could, but warp drive is offline, hell we don’t even have main power. Do what you can to destroy those molecules but we are stuck in this fight. I will see what the Centaur can do, Walker out.” He pressed the button and closed the link before looking to his officers. “Whats the status on the Centaur?”

“They’re in better shape in power wise, but they’ve taken just about the same kind of damage we did. Their port nacelle is badly damaged, their warp drive is offline, their impulse engines are damaged and only operating at eighty percent. They lost all four of their dorsal phaser banks but both torpedo launchers seem to be fine.” The engineering officer reported after running a detailed scan on their escort. But suddenly the intruder alarm went off.

“What the hell?!” Walker barked before looking at Tactical.

“Internal sensors must of been damaged on certain sections of the ship, but now they are detecting twelve Klingons and they’re heading for the main cargo bay where the resonance chamber is!! They’ll be there in ten minutes!”

“God damnit! We don’t have a well armed security force on board. Get me the Centaur, quickly!” Walker ordered.

[USS Centaur]

Carter forced the other half of the turbolift door open after the lift had got him there and only one half of the split door had opened for him. “Report!” Carter also noticed that the standard bridge crew had returned to their stations as he had ordered earlier, but it was a mess. Apparently two of the outer consoles, a secondary science and secondary engineering console, had a power overload and exploded. He could see that two crew persons were being treated by a medical staff.

“All dorsal phasers are gone. Shield generator took a hit and so our shields are only operating at sixty-five percent. Port nacelle took heavy damage and warp drive is offline. Impulse engines were damaged as well and we can only go maybe three quarter impulse.” Reported Gomez.

“What about the Don?” Vakai asked as he pulled himself back onto his feet by his hands on the railing.

“They got the worst of it. Pretty much the same damage we got, but their aft torpedo launcher is destroyed and their main power is offline, she’s running on auxiliary and emergency batteries.” Gomez replied.

“Sir, Don is hailing us.” Said the comms.

“On Screen,” Vakai and Carter said in unison before looking at each other, Carter smiling at Vakai and Vakai smiled back before they both gave the main viewer their attention.

“Centaur, we have a problem. Internal sensors are offline in several sections of the ship, and we just now detected twelve Klingons on board. They’re heading for the main cargo bay where our resonance chamber is. My security team is not armed enough to handle this, I need your help.” Said Walker.

Vakai looked to Carter. “I can order Koyda and Maya to gear up in their Hazard gear and send a team to the Don’s main cargo bay.”

“Do it.” Carter ordered.

Vakai went over to the comm station and raised them directly, where he explained the situation to them.

“Ryker, get us behind the Don quickly. Gomo, lower the forward shields when the team is ready for transport.” Bother Ryker and Gomo acknowledged to Carter’s orders.

“We will sync our aft shields with your tactical officer so that way they are lowered and raised back up in unison.” Said Walker.

Suddenly a new voice was heard over the intercom.

“I know what you are doing.” Came a low, heavy, raspy voice. “And it will not matter. If I do not get what I want, I will destroy both your vessels.”

Carter looked to Vakai and mouthed ‘Hurry’ before looking up at the ceiling as if the intercom system were there. “I am Captain Carter of the USS Centaur. Explain for your aggressive actions against two Starfleet vessels, and maybe I won’t file a complaint to the Klingon Council.”

There was a hearty, loud laughter, a series of them before the voice returned. “I don’t answer to the Council, Captain.”

Carter frowned, ‘Great…another bloody rogue. The Klingon Empire may be their allies but they are such a pain in the-‘ Vakai cleared his throat and Carter turned his head to look at him. Vakai mouthed, ‘Ready’. Carter mouthed back, ‘Do it.’ before looking to Gomo and nodding his head. “Then to whom am I speaking to.”

“I am Captain Vok. Descendant of Duras.”

Carter cursed under his breath and then Vakai said, “Transport complete!” Carter gave the ‘cut’ signal with the finger across his neck, the transmission now terminated. “Ryker, I need your best flying skills, now! Without dorsal phasers, we’re going to have to focus a lot of fighting from our ventral weapons but we can’t take too many hits to our ventral shields, understood?”

“Absolutely, Captain. Initiating the Ryker maneuver.” Ryker acknowledged with a grin.

Carter then turned to Gomo. “If that bastard is a descendant of who he believes he is, then we have no chance of negotiating with him. He wants Omega, and there is no way in hell he is getting it!” Carter pointed at the Vorcha on the view screen as the Centaur moved around the Don from its rear. “I want that ship burning!”

“Say no more, Captain!” Gomo acknowledged.

Carter turned to Vakai. “Take your damn seat and teach this Klingon a lesson.” Carter pointed to the center chair.

Vakai smirked, “Aye, sir.” He said as he walked over and sat down. “Ryker, Gomo. Let’s do this. Gomez, we’re going to need all the power we got to the shields and phaser banks.”

Gomez’s fingers were darting over her board. “I’ll do what I can!”

“Yee haw!” Ryker shouted as he entered the commands of his ‘maneuver’ and the ship literally rotated on it’s Z axis until it was completely upside down…well in terms of space, nothing was truly ‘up’ or ‘down’ but it allowed the Centaur to use the ventral phaser banks to attack the Vorcha while they approached it at the best top speed they could go. Ryker even inverted his controls so he could fly the ship like it is, in a way of making ventral now dorsal and dorsal now ventral.

“Keep us in between the Klingon ship and the Don! I don’t want them taking any more weapons fire, or we’re all fraked!” Carter told Ryker and Ryker acknowledged as he adjusted the ship’s trajectory.

“I’m going to need quicker responses from the thrusters, Gomez!” Ryker told her.

“Working on it!!” Gomez replied as Gomo allowed the phaser capacitor to stay near fully charged while firing each phaser bank in a sequence, not wanting to drain it too quickly but still wanting to provide a heavy beating as much as this ship could dish out against a Vorcha Attack Cruiser.

While the Centaur worked to keep the Vorcha busy, the Don S. Davis began to turn away to starboard, the port side lifting up and phaser beams lanced out from the ventral phaser arrays toward the Vorcha when they had an opening, doing their best to provide assistance but also try to not draw too much attention to themselves for good reason.

[Meanwhile on board the Don]

Koyda and Maya lead the team of six security officers from the Centaur, as they went to set up a barricade at both directions in the corridor just before the door to the main cargo bay, using crates and containers that weren’t explosive or any of the sort. Not knowing exactly which direction the Klingon invaders were coming from, they set it up that way so they had both directions covered as a precaution. But once they showed up, it was not easy as they had intended it to be.

The team tried to take down as many as they could with their rifles as the twelve Klingons charged at them, but they were only able to take down four before they got into close combat, forcing them to fight off eight Klingons in a hand to hand combat, which is usually always a disaster, as the Klingons excel so well in this area of fighting.

Back to the space battle at hand, the Vorcha fired a volley of disruptor bolts at the Centaur and launched a couple torpedoes at the Don before peeling away to resume its hit and run tactic, it even began to cloak itself while it pulled away.

On board the Centaur, “Ventral shields down to twenty percent!” Gomo reported.

“We’re taking too much weapons fire on the ventral, we’re going to need to roll back over.” Carter chipped in.

Vakai turned to look at Gomez, “Can we reinforce the ventral shields some how?”

“We can do what we did before, pump all battery power into the ventral shields but once we do that, we won’t have any emergency batteries. So if we lose main power and auxiliary, we’ll be dead in the water and nothing will stop them from destroying the ship.” Gomez explained.

“Then it’s a risk we have to take, we need to force them to retreat some how, to keep them from getting the resonance chamber! Do it!” Vakai ordered.

Gomez nodded and began to enter commands at her station.

“The Shadriq is cloaking!” Gomo reported.

Carter cursed under his breath, “We need to keep track of them!”

Vakai stood up, “Gomo, quickly set the first three photon torpedoes to proximity fire and try anticipate their trajectory, fire the torpedoes and have them explode just in right time to reveal the Shadriq, then fire phasers at what you see. We need to keep them lit up!”

Gomo nodded his head and his fingers darted over the console before hitting the fire button, launching the three torpedoes.

Gomez then turned in her seat, “Ventral shields are up to forty five percent, that’s the best I can do!”

Meanwhile on board the Don, Walker watched as the Vorcha began to disappear but then saw the Centaur firing torpedoes. He squinted a little and then saw how the torpedoes exploded, revealing the Shadriq, then watched as phaser beams from the Centaur’s ventral banks lanced out to keep the Shadriq ‘lit up’.

Walker looked to his tactical officer. “Pull up the Battle of the Bassen Rift, adjust our phasers accordingly and fire on that ship! We’re not going to let them use their cloaking tactics, hell no.” He then turned to the helm. “Bring us about, I want us to keep assisting the Centaur, there is no way she can fight that Vorcha on her own.” Both officers acknowledged and soon, the Don came back around and her phasers lanced out with mere seconds in between to keep the Vorcha from getting away. Even if it was small, light damage to the hull, it was keeping the Vorcha ‘tracked’.

Walker then pressed the button on the left arm rest that gave him a channel link to the main cargo bay. “Is that chamber ready to destroy those molecules yet?!”

“Just a few more minutes, we have a lot here, we need to make sure we eliminate them all, we can’t have any mistakes.”

“Well hurry! How’s the security team from the Centaur doing?”

“They’re doing a hell of a job keeping the Klingons away but they’re in a middle of a hand to hand combat. I can’t look right now to get you an accurate detail, trying to finish down here!”

Walker cursed and watched as the Centaur fired a couple more torpedoes, not set to proximity this time, as they soared across space just to make contact with the hull of the Vorcha. At that point, the Shadriq disengaged the cloaking device and their shields were back up near full strength, finally realizing that using their cloaking device in their hit and run tactics wasn’t going to work anymore, not when both ships were hounding them to keep them ‘tracked’.

On board the Shadriq, Vok growled loudly and in quite a rage, that he slammed both his fists onto his arm rests before standing up. He then pointed at the view screen, at the Centaur, while looking at his weapons officer. “I want that ship gone, now!!”

The Shadriq then came about, and launched a large volley of disruptor bolts, including a single heavy one, along with a few torpedoes, all towards the Centaur. Gomez cursed under her breath and tried to work quickly to redirect shield strength from the aft sections towards the front before they took the brunt of it all. Many of the disruptor bolts hit their shields but the larger one punched through and smashed into the ventral saucer section, the sheer force knocking the Centaur off its trajectory, by which the trajectory made the three torpedoes contact with the Centaur’s torpedo pod, essentially destroying the pod but not completely so the nacelles were still attached.

One of the other bridge consoles, a third one, exploded due to the power overload, sending a crew person over the railing from their seat as the other personnel ran over to put the fire out and check on them. Suddenly the lights went out and the red emergency lighting came on.

“Main power is offline! Rerouting Auxiliary power to critical systems.” Gomez reported before turning her head to Vakai. “We don’t have weapons or shields anymore, we’re a sitting duck!”

Suddenly, Walker’s voice came over the intercom. “Centaur, you still have impulse engines, haul ass away from the Klingon ship, now!!”

Vakai looked to Ryker, “You heard the man!”

“Punching it!” Ryker replied.

As the ship’s trajectory was corrected, it moved away as quickly as it could with only now half impulse speed available while the resonance chamber suddenly appeared between all of them. Walker stared at it on the main viewer before turning to his tactical. “Fire the gravimetric torpedo!!” And the torpedo was sent.

On the Shadriq, Voq stepped closer to the main screen. “Transport that chamber, now!!” But it was too late, the torpedo was faster than they were, but the Intelligence Officer had anticipated this, because the second they saw the chamber was beamed into space, they moved to the tactical station and began rerouting power to the forward shields, strengthening it as much as possible before the torpedo made contact with the chamber, causing a large explosion and a massive blast radius from the nearly four hundred million molecules that was inside it.

The Don had adjusted their forward shields as well as the Shadriq did and the Centaur had gotten far enough to be just on the edge of the blast radius before it hit them. But the Shadriq was closer than the three vessels were and their forward shield generator overloaded, causing secondary explosions on several decks and literally shoving the ship further away from its position. The Don on the other hand, the forward shields strained from the blast until they were no more, but it wasn’t as bad as the Shadriq had it, so the generator didn’t overload but still, it was enough to cause some damage to their forward hull on the saucer section, severely damaging both forward phaser arrays on the dorsal and ventral of the saucer.

On the Shadriq, Vok forced himself back onto his feet from the deck as he looked around, the Bridge filled with smoke, hearing sparks spitting out from some where. “Report!” He shouted.

His Intel Officer pulled themselves up from the floor with their grip on the weapons console, doing their best to respond to their Captain’s order. He grunted as his head hurt, thinking he may slammed his head on the console before meeting with the deck. Everything looked like it was swirling, but he was a warrior, he needed to concentrate. He tried to shake it off until his vision came back to normal, not sure if shaking his head helped or he was just recovering on his own. He read over the display before finding his voice, “Forward shield generator is gone. We lost a few disruptor banks, including the heavy disruptor. Forward torpedo launcher is damaged, but we can get it operational again.”

“My lord! Starfleet vessel is hailing us!” Reported the Comms Officer.

Vok growled, “On viewer.” He then turned to see the bushy haired face of a man before him on his screen.

“I am Lieutenant Commander Walker of the USS Don S. Davis. We just detonated the very thing you wanted from us, and I can assure you…we have more of those torpedoes in our forward launcher. You know exactly what those torpedoes can do, and if I have to, I will use them to stop you. So you have a choice, Captain. Get the hell out of Federation Space, or be prepared to go to Sto’Vo’Kor.”

Vok growled even more, “I am prepared to die, Commander. We all are. It would be an honor for us to die in battle and meet the great heroes of the Empire in Sto’Vo’Kor! And I will make you pay for taking away what I rightfully came for!”

Walker sighed, “You’re not giving me much choice, Captain. Face it. You lost. There is no honor in continuing this fight! But ending this battle to save yourself for another day, is no defeat either.”

Vok lifted up his head and tilted it slightly with a small grin. “You speak like a Klingon, Commander.”

Walker shrugged one of his shoulders. “After being allied with your people for so long, we Starfleet Officers pick up a thing or two. So what is it going to be, Captain? You don’t have forward shields, one single gravimetric torpedo in my launcher will surely vaporize your ship. What honor would there be where you stand no chance to fire one more shot at us?”

Vok growled, “I assure you, Commander…I can get one more torpedo out before you launched yours and I won’t be aiming for you…” He grinned, as that was his hint for his weapons officer to lock onto the Centaur.

Walker shook his head. “How? We can see the damage you’ve taken. Your forward torpedo launcher isn’t even working right now. You think this chat we’re having is going to give you enough time to make the repairs? I don’t think so. I will not say this again, Captain. Leave Federation Space…or be destroyed.”

The Intelligence Officer walked around the console and grabbed Vok’s arm. “My lord.” He spoke softly. “Your grand plan. Your future for us and for your great house. If we are to restore it’s glory, we can’t let it end here. You must survive, or it will all be for naught.”

Vok let out a heavy, growling sigh as his officer was correct. “Warp Drive?”

The pilot turned in his seat, “Warp six is the best we can do, my lord.”

“Cloak?” Vok asked.

“Barely operational.” The Weapons Officer reported.

Vok returned his attention to Walker on his viewer. “Fine. You win, Commander. But I assure you…we will be looking for more of this…energy…and one day, Starfleet will regret ever crossing my path.” He then made the ‘cut’ gesture and the transmission was terminated. “Cloak the ship, and set course back to base at warp five. I don’t want us to be tracked as we leave Federation Space. But in crease speed as soon as the repairs to our engines and cloaking device has been completed…I don’t want to be stuck out here for too long…” He plopped down into his seat as he cursed in Klingon under his breath, disappointed that he failed to acquire this…weapon for himself.

Meanwhile, on board the Centaur. Sickbay was quite active, in fact it was so full, that casualties were being treated in the hallway. Carter stood there in that hallway, staring at his injured crew while the medical staff did their best to treat them. Vakai came up beside him, looking at the chaos before turning his head to look at Carter. “Repairs are under way, sir. Commander Walker says the Don has enough supplies to repair both our ships but neither of us will be back to full efficiency. We should return to the Devron Fleet Yards. Also the Don is providing their sickbay to assist with the casualties.”

Carter sighed with a couple nods of his head. “How about the security team over at the Don?”

“Maya got a nasty gash on her left arm, but she’s alive and being treated. Koyda and the rest of the team…some how they all survived. They did extremely well, sir. Keeping the Klingons from reaching the main cargo bay.” Vakai reported.

Carter nodded his head again, “I will recommend to Starfleet to give them a commendation. That’s if…they’ll do it…this entire operation is completely classified.”

Vakai nodded his head as well, “We should all be getting a commendation for this, sir. If the Don had taken anymore hits…”

Carter sighed heavily and looked up at the ceiling. “We would be dealing with ungodly disasters and phenomena that would surely rip our ships apart…if we survived the blast radius at all. But the Mankiran Planet would be ground zero and torn to pieces…Then billions…trillions of lives would be forced to change the way we travel forever.”

Vakai frowned and looked at him. “Sir?”

Carter lowered his head from looking up at the ceiling, and turned his focus onto Vakai. “You will understand, when-”

“When I make Captain, I know.” Vakai sighed, shaking his head. “But what are we going to do?”

Carter shook his head, “I don’t know. None of this makes sense, Vakai. There has never been a reported incident of these…molecules forming naturally. And to hear the Mankiran’s saying that they only had several hundred thousand synthesized…turn into about four hundred million just…out of the blue…it…” Carter shook his head again before rubbing his temples. “Everything I was told about this when I became Captain…something is happening, and…” Carter lowered his hands, looking at his injured crew. “What ever this is…if they can create these molecules like that…I am truly afraid of what else they could possibly do. And what if they’re hostile? How in the hell would we be any match against such a force?”

Vakai shook his head again, “Then I can only hope that they are friendly.”

Carter snorted with a grin. “Glad to have you here, Vakai. You’ll make a fine Captain some day.”

“I hope so…I certainly don’t like seeing the crew like this…”

Carter nodded, “The downside of being a Captain…and First Officer…or any senior staff member of the department this crew belonged to. We knew the risks when we joined, everyone did, and we knew that some day, we would be called upon to protect the quadrant, the galaxy even…at whatever the cost. I just hope we can pull through again, because I seriously doubt that this is over.”

Vakai frowned, “You think that this is only the beginning?”

Carter nodded again. “I do.”

-The end of Chapter Five, and likely of Phase One for the crew of the Centaur.
-They managed to pull it off in the fight against the Shadriq, but at what cost? Can the Don really repair all the damage that both vessels had taken? Surely such a task would take months, especially with the damage the Centaur has sustained!
-But what is it that Carter is afraid of? Who or what is doing this? Are they friend or foe? Guess we shall find out in the second phase!! So stay tuned for more adventures from the Centaur!!
-Also…another little sneak peak into the future? What exactly will happen to Vok? All in due time…