Captain Órlaith McClellan stepped off the shuttle at the spaceport in San Francisco.  The air had that unique California smell.  A combination of saline from the ocean, and native fauna that she had no way of identifying .

She could have used the transporter facility adjacent to the spaceport, but she opted walk. It was a beautiful day with a soft blue sky and puffy white cloud, and the temperature was perfect.

She strolled down the road and made a right down Archer Street.  After a nearly two kilometer walk she stepped onto the main campus of Starfleet Command.  Working her way across the main quad to the Cochrane Building she entered.

She paused at the directory to check her destination and took the turbolift to level four.  The doors parted and she stepped out onto the ASDB floor.  She followed the corridor to the end where it opened up to a lobby.  “Captain McClellan here to see Admiral Talon,” Órlaith announced.

The receptionist went to her computer and checked the schedule.  “The Admiral is waiting on you captain.”

“Thank you ensign,” Órlaith smiled.

She crossed the lobby and entered the office on the left.  Admiral Rebecca Talon looked up from a holographic model of a starship. “Órlaith how are you?”

“Captain,” Órlaith grinned widely, “Admiral I mean.  I’ll never get used to calling you that.”

“Don’t worry Commander.  I will never get used to calling you captain,” Rebecca teased. There had been a time when the Admiral’s hair was red as Órlaith’s own thanks her Irish mother. Now, that hair had faded to white and grey.   Rebecca crossed the office and filled a cup with black coffee, and another cup with a two sugars.  Rebecca handed Órlaith the sweetened coffee.

“You remember how I like my coffee.”

“If I’m not mistaken it was I who got you started on this vile stuff.”

“Yes ma’am, you did. Never touched the stuff before you made me your CAG. How are the girls?”

“Aimee and Liv? Umm… well, depends.  The twins were serving on the Hippocrates.  Aimee is a full doctor now, and Liv… well not so well. After the Hippocrates mission was scrubbed Livvy was tapped by Starfleet Intelligence for a mission into Cardassia.  I don’t know all the details. Most of it was classified, and even I am not on the need to know list.” Rebecca took a sip of her coffee and sat down on the edge of her desk.  “At any rate she lost a pip and no captain will touch her with a ten foot pole. She dang near got booted out of Starfleet altogether.  I think her relationship to me kept that from happening.”

“I can probably give her a second chance,” Órlaith offered.

“I might take you up on the offer,  but don’t think that’s going clear your debt to me.  That’s a favor to Liv not me.”

Órlaith smiled, “If I didn’t know better I would have thought you had a bit of Ferengi in you Ma’am.”

Rebecca shrugged, “You never know what ended up in the wood pile.  Congratulations on that fourth pip and the Gettysburg by the way.”

“Thanks Admiral.”

“So, speaking of that fourth pip. That’s why you are here.”

Órlaith cocked head, “I had wondered what the head of the ASDB would want with me.”

Rebecca stood and circled around her desk and offered Órlaith a seat before taking her own. “It’s not ASDB that wants you.  As your former captain I volunteered to give you this briefing”

Órlaith raised an eyebrow as she slid into the chair across from her former captain.  She had known Rebecca Sandoval.. now Talon for a long time, and this was the most cryptic she had ever been.

Taking a sip of her coffee she sat back, “Okay, what is this about?”

“I miss your bluntness Órlaith.  What I am about to tell you is reserved for Captain’s and flag officers only.  What is said here is not to leave this room understood?”

Órlaith raised and eyebrow in surprise again.  Sitting up she set the coffee on the desk in front of her.  The Admiral had her full undivided attention. “Crystal clear ma’am.”

“Good.” Rebecca entered several commands including a voice print ID to unlock the information and the holographic ship was replaced by a three dimensional representation of a molecule that slowly spun on its y-axis..

“Omega,” Admiral Talon stated. “If, while on your adventures, your ship were to encounter this molecule it will lock out all stations with the Greek symbol of Omega.  Only your command codes will disengage the lockout. You are not to discuss this with your crew.  You are to immediately contact Starfleet Command and we will send in a specialized team.”

Órlaith stared at the hologram for a moment before looking over at Rebecca.  “I am unfamiliar with this.  If I remember my chemistry correctly, that is one hell of a complex molecule.  I would say it’s highly unstable, and certainly not naturally occurring.”

“It isn’t, and yes, it is highly unstable.  It’s the most powerful substance that we know of.  It contains the same energy of a warp core in a single molecule.  We surmise that a chain of these molecules could sustain a civilization.  It was first synthesized in the 22nd Century  by a Starfleet physicist  by the name of Ketteract. He synthesized a single molecule of Omega for only a fraction of a second.”  Rebecca entered commands and Omega was replaced by a half destroyed space station.  “This is the result.  This was a classified research facility in the Lantaru sector.  The explosion killed Ketteract and 126 scientists were killed.  An unexpected consequence was encountered by rescue teams: Subspace ruptures extending out several light years.  These ruptures made it impossible to form a stable warp field.  Sublight speeds only.”

“So Omega destroys subspace?  If one molecule could do all that, what would happen if there were two or dozens?”

“Space travel as we know it would cease to exist,” Rebecca replied. “This power is why Starfleet suppressed all knowledge of it.  Can you imagine what would happen if the Federation’s enemies were to get a hold of this?  I don’t think I have to illustrate the consequences here.”

Órlaith sat back in her seat as if she had been suddenly handed the weight of the entire universe on her shoulders.  “Wow that’s… Well that’s something ma’am.”

“Fortunately you don’t have to do anything about it.  Just make sure your crew are ignorant of Omega and you call Starfleet Command and we will take care of the rest.”

“Understood.”

“Good.”  Rebecca turned off the holographic display.  “You are dismissed, Captain.”

Órlaith stood, snapped to attention and made a smart about-face and headed for the door.  “Órlaith?” Rebecca stopped her at the door.

“Yes, Admiral?” She asked looking back.

“What are you doing tonight?”

“Nothing ma’am.  I was planning on reporting to Gettysburg tomorrow, but tonight I have no plans.”

“Why don’t you come by my family ranch in Santa Fe for dinner.  Say 19:00?”

Órlaith smiled, “Sounds fantastic ma’am.  Just don’t cook anything too spicy.”

Rebecca laughed and shook her head, “See you then Órlaith.”

The USS Gettysburg, an outdated Constellation-class starship, traveled at warp heading for Starbase 86. They had just completed a long-term sensor sweep of the Omarian Cluster and were returning to base for resupply in preparation for their next mission.

Captain Órlaith McClellan was in her cramped ready room completing the latest round of transfer requests.  Some of these officers could be easily replaced, others would not be.  But, the Gettysburg was hardly the pride of the fleet, and it lacked many of the amenities that so many of today’s officers were accustomed to.  Órlaith knew that her ship would soon see the scrappers but until then it was her duty to make it perform as good or better than it did when it left the assembly yards seventy years ago.

In mid-sentence, as she was completing a report, the screen on her computer terminal went black for a second to be replaced by the Greek symbol Omega.  She stood with a sigh and crossed the ready room and onto the bridge. She was greeted by confused faces on every officer present since they had suddenly been locked out of their station with no warning. 

“Captain, do you know what’s going on?” Her first officer, Commander Peterson asked.

“Yes,” she replied, “but I can’t discuss it.  At all.”  She went to a nearby science station and entered her command codes, to which the computer beeped and prompted her to enter her voice ID, “Mclellan-411-Mike-Charlie-Red.”

“Voiceprint recognized.  Command functions resumed. Follow Omega Directive protocols,” The computer announced.

“Commander, you are in command until further notice,” Órlaith ordered.

“Aye Captain,” Peterson replied with confusion on his face.

“It’s best you don’t ask too many questions, commander. I know you have them, but I can’t give you answers. Please urge the rest of the crew to do the same.”

“Aye Captain.”

Órlaith nodded, gave him a sympathetic smile and returned to her ready room, locking the door behind her.

— Terra Alpha —

Terra Alpha was the third planet of a small star system not unlike that of Sol. The system was located along the border of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants approximately 250 light-years from Earth.  Terra Alpha and her sister planet, Terra Beta, had been terraformed sometime around 2320. Of the two, Terra Alpha was by far the most populous with a population of 780 million inhabitants.

Ethan Talon kicked his right foot out of the stirrup of his well-worn Western-style roping saddle and swung to the ground outside a large barn made of thick logs.  Jake, a buckskin-colored lineback dun quarter horse snorted and started pawing the dry earth. “Stop that,” Ethan chided the horse as he led Jake through the gate and into the yard of his ranch.  

Ethan’s five-year-old son, Arthur, had a kid’s rope in his hands and was twirling the lasso trying to rope a red plastic calf head sticking out of a bail of hay. With his tongue out, Arthur threw the open lariat and missed his target. Disappointed Arthur started coiling his rope back up.

“Keep practicing and you’ll get it,” Ethan said to his son. “Where’s your sister?”

Arthur pushed back his grey Stetson with a thumb.  The hat was way too big for him since it originally had been Ethan’s.  In an imitation of the other cowboys around the ranch, Arthur hooked his left thumb into the belt loop of his Wranglers.  “I don’t know.  Doing girl stuff I guess.”

“Did you check your pony’s water?”

“Yeah.”

“Good man,” Ethan said as he tied Jake to the hitchin’ post.  “How about her stall? Did you clean it?”

“I forgot,” Arthur replied with a heavy sigh.

“You forgot huh?  Well, you’ve been reminded.  You better go do that, don’t you think?”

Arthur pouted and dropped his rope heading for the barn. 

 “Eh!” Ethan scolded. “Don’t just throw your rope on the ground! Pick it up and put it away.”

Arthur ran back and picked up his rope and then ran into the barn.  The slamming of the tack room door marked him having completed the task.  Ethan chuckled to himself as he unbuckled the cinches and peeled off the saddle and blanket as one and swung it onto the horizontal bar of the hitching post.  Ethan was brushing down Jake when his wife Trinity walked out of the house and approached him. 

Shading her eyes against the sun with her right hand she spoke, “Hey Admiral T’vir is on subspace for you.”

Ethan sighed, “We must have a mission.”

“Looks like it,” Trinity agreed.

Sighing Ethan led Jake back through the gate he came in on and peeled off the bridle allowing the dun loose. The gelding ran up to the other horses grazing nearby nickering and started grazing with the others. Trinity had already put his saddle away and the two fell in step heading for the main house.

“Should I get Murph and Catarina on prepping the ship for departure?” Trinity asked.

Ethan sighed, “Yeah go ahead. Even if we aren’t deployed we might as well use this as an opportunity to fulfill our monthly training requirements.”

“David should be over on the north pasture. He said there were a couple of cows ready to drop. I’ll take a skiff and get him.”

Ethan nodded, “Sounds like a plan.  I should be done talking to the Admiral  when you get back.  I can brief everyone en route.   I just hope Mrs. Ackers didn’t have plans for the weekend.”

“Oh, she’ll be fine.  We hired her to take care of the kids for this very reason.  Having her on staff has been a blessing and the kids adore her.”

Ethan chuckled,  “She’s a walking stereotype.”

“Wynona Ackers may look like a mild-mannered grandma, but she’s anything but. I’ve seen her put blush on a cowhand for not taking his boots off before walking across her newly cleaned floor.”

Grinning,  “Like I said, ‘a walking stereotype’.”

Trinity playfully slapped his upper arm, “Just because your grandma was a black-hearted evil cow doesn’t mean all grandmas are.”

“Grandma Sackett is not evil.  She just takes no guff.  She doesn’t have time for our ‘damned tomfoolery’.”

“Yeah, bet you heard that a lot,” Trinity teased.

“I did,” Ethan agreed as he ducked through the door.

After hanging his black cowboy hat on the hall tree and drew his revolver. Opening the cylinder he shook out the five bullets into his hand and dropped them into his shirt pocket.   Holstering the weapon Ethan unbuckled his gun belt and hung it from a hook on the wall.

–Two Hours Later–

Terra Alpha Spaceport is a hive of activity with departures and arrivals crammed cheek by jowl as passengers moved between their gates.  Ethan and Trinity were now in their red-trimmed Starfleet uniforms.  He a commander and she a lieutenant commander.  

Bringing up the rear in a gold uniform was a man who shared Ethan’s flat nose and square jaw.  Lieutenant David Sackett was Ethan’s first cousin and Ranch Foreman for the Rafter-T Ranch. He was a powerfully built young man in his mid-twenties.

The trio rounded a corner of the spaceport and turned into the Starfleet terminal. After a quick security check, they walked down the empty corridor to Gate A7.  Ethan entered his access code and they walked through the parting doors to the open bay. 

The USS Zebulon Pike was a heavily modified Magellan-class scout ship.  It was nothing more than a more capable runabout.  With two decks and a class VI warp drive, it was just as fast as any ship in the fleet.

They walked up the gangway entering deck two.  “I better get to the engine room,” David said.

Ethan nodded, “Sure Dave.  When we get up I’ll brief everyone on our mission.”

David smirked, “Nothing good I’m sure.”

Ethan and Trinity turned left as David veered right and they continued down the corridor to the main staircase.  The Magellan class was too small to justify a turbolift system.  Ethan didn’t know how the fleet ships would deal with a crewmember with disabilities, but perhaps transporters were used.

The doors to the bridge were immediately across from the landing and they entered.  Ensigns Patrick Murphey and Catarina Peters were already at their positions. The crew was small, just the five of them, and they didn’t stand on ceremony.  They were all handpicked by Ethan for their skills, and due to the nature of their covert status, they had considerable latitude.

“Hey Ethan boyo,” Murphy said in his Irish accent.  “Weapons are ready. The yard monkies even gave us those upgrades we asked for.”

“How’s the ranch and kids?” Catarina said from the helm.

“They’re growing like weeds, and the ranch is beautiful this time of year,” Trinity replied as she slid into the operations position.  “My strawberries should be ripe this week.  God, I forgot to tell Mrs. Ackers to watch them.”  She sighed and started entering commands into her console.

“They’ll be fine,” Ethan chuckled as he slid into the captain’s chair.  “I reminded her to keep an eye on your garden. I know the drill.”

Trinity looked over and smiled at her husband and then back to her panel.  “Dave reports that the ship is ready for launch.”

“Good job you two,” Ethan said to his youngest members.

“It’s not my fault you three live half a planet away,” Catarina said as she entered commands into the helm.  “Lower gangway is closed and sealed.  Spaceport umbilicals are severed and mooring clamps released.”

“Not all of us can live less than a block away,” Ethan retorted.

“Hey, Capitol City is the Paris of the colony worlds.”

“Catarina, do I look like someone who worries about high heels and designer handbags?” Ethan said dryly.

“I’m sure mom could help you out with that if you wanted,” Trinity teased.  Trinity’s mother, Angelica Ryder, was a local fashion designer. Her designs were known for their chic retro 20th and 21st-century influence and were worn throughout the Federation.

“I’m good thanks,” Ethan replied.  He pressed the comm button on his armrest, “Terra Alpha Control, USS Zebulon Pike, requesting departure clearance.”

“Zebulon Pike you are cleared to launch heading 021, maneuvering thrusters only. Climb and maintain four thousand until cleared of the Bravo. Once you have left the Bravo you are free to navigate at your discretion.”

Ethan repeated back the instructions, and without having to be told the Zebulon Pike lifted off from the concrete tarmac vertically until it cleared the structure of the spaceport and then rotated before climbing over Capital City.  The skyscrapers of the city shrank as they reached their four-thousand meters of altitude. 

“We are clearing the Bravo,” Catarina said as the small ship left the city behind and the silvery-blue ocean stretched before them.

“Increase speed to one-quarter impulse. Take us to orbit.

“Sure thing boss,” Catarina said as her fingers danced over the console.  

Outside on the viewscreen the ocean quickly disappeared behind clouds, which in turn they started to fade as the ship crossed the threshold from atmosphere to space.  “Okay, Catarina set course for the Ya’ter System, maximum warp.”

“Ya’ter system, maximum warp, aye,” Catarina replied in fragmented sentences.

Pressing the intercom this time on his armrest, “Hey Dave can you come up here for the briefing?”

There was a pause and then David replied, “Yeah, give me a second to get these holographic engineers on something.”

“Anything serious?”

“Not yet,” David responded.  “Just nipping a potential maintenance issue in the bud.”

“Understood. We’ve got an Omega problem so you might want to get your holographic engineers on that too.”

“Okay Ethan. Will do.”

“See you in a bit. Bridge out.”

Ethan pressed his palm to his forehead hopefully to scratch an itch that was unscratchable behind the bony ridges of a prosthetic forehead.

“You’re going to expose us,” Trinity scolded him.

“I know, but I’m sweating in this thing and it’s itching like the Devil.”

They had arrived at the planet were the Omega molecule had been detected.  Unbelievably the native population appeared to be about the level of early 21st Century Earth. How these people had not only managed to create the omega particle,  but it seemed like they had a way of controlling it. And since bombing the location from orbit would violate the Prime Directive here they were.

“The signal is coming from over there,” Trinity pointed to the right.   It was a low building clad in white stucco.   There was a high wall surrounding the compound, and the building had no windows. 

Ethan sighed as he looked it over.  It looked like a government facility if he had ever seen one.  Not that it really mattered.  Security wasn’t likely to be impossible for them to breech given this civilization’s level of technology. But, if it was military there could be soldiers,  and dealing with a soldier over a scientist was completely different. 

“I would really like to get in and out without a phaser fight.  I know it’s Omega and we have a ton of latitude, but a body count just isn’t up to our usual standards,” Ethan said.

“You have standards?” Trinity teased him. “When did this happen?”

“Last night when I realized that I could do so much better than you,” he deadpaned without looking away from the building. 

She punched him in the gut. Ethan resisted the urge to double over in pain, but there was a twitch of a smile. “See what I mean?  Abusive too.”

“I am the mother of your children,” Trinity pointed out.  “I’m the best you’ll ever get.”

Ethan chuckled, recovering quickly.   She had pulled the punch.  Definitely could have been worse and he did deserve it.  “Okay, what are we going to do here?”

“I don’t know,” she replied with a shrug.

“Okay,  I know time is of the essence,  but I don’t want to go in there blind.”  He lead Trinity down the street and into a blind alley. “Talon to Zebulon Pike,” he announced pressing his concealed combadge.

“Go ahead Boss,” Murphy said over the com.

“Two to beam up.”

The five officers were gathered in the conference room of the USS Zebulon Pike six hours later.   On the conference screen was a wire frame depiction of the research facility.

“Okay here’s the plan,” Ethan replied.   “David has constructed a Borg harmonic resonance chamber.  Standard procedure is the take Omega out with a torpedo, but in this case it’s in the middle of a population center.”

“I can program the chamber to emit an inverse frequency.   It should be enough to dissolve Omega’s interatomic bonds.  There’s just one problem: we have to get all the Omega particles into the chamber,  and it’s too unstable for a standard transporter sequence,” David replied.  “We’ll need to get in there and set up transport enhancers.”

“We also have to destroy all research into the project,” Ethan added. 

“And there’s another problem,” Trinity added.  “I’ve been going over their media. It seems the government where Omega is located is in a cold war with another nation state.  We stand a good chance of turning that cold war into a very hot war.”

“So what do we do?” Ethan asked.

He got blank stares back, but eventually it was David that spoke, “Well, I am assuming this is a top secret facility.  I doubt you would want something like Omega from being general knowledge.   Their government may just sweep it under the rug.”

“Or it could be the justification for a full scale nuclear war,” Ethan replied. 

“What it…” Trinity hesitated,  “Well, what if we kidnapped the president.   We can brief him on the perals  of Omega.  I doubt he knows all the details, but if we prove that we aren’t his enemy at least he may not use it as justification to bomb the crap out of innocents.”

Ethan nodded,  “I like it.  Do you know where he is?”

“I think so. I think I can beam some surveillance drones into the presidential compound tonight and once we locate him, beam him to the ship.”

“Good. Catarina we’re going to need canisters of neurozine gas.  I seriously doubt we’ll get their blessing. Can you handle that?”  

“On it boss.”

“Well, I guess we’re kidnapping the president,” Ethan sighed.   “Let’s get on it. The longer we wait the greater chance for an accident.”