“At almost a quarter to mid-day the people of Docana have voted in favour for the Progressive Unionist Caucus, thus ending the Parliamentary election. The Progressive Unionists have won. Chamagerit zh’Thachker, their leader, is the new Chancellor of the Andorian Empire.”

Those words still buzzed in between Margerit’s antennas; even after almost fifty days since taking office she remembered the moment of sudden realisation that she had become the leader of her people. No longer was she just an elected member of the Parliament Andoria, an Ambassador or a retired/honouree member of the Imperial Guard. She was the new head of government. She was the Andorian leader.

When she heard those words, she had been sitting beside her bondmate Kravdemies ch’Thachker. He had been hospitalised after having triple-bypass surgery on his heart. She and her bondgroup had decided on election night that it was important for them to just spend it with Demies and observe the election results from the various feeds coming through the Andorian news channels. When Sethilayis th’Rasfoth, the senior political news editor of the Andorian Broadcasting Company, had announced the news that the Docana colony had finally submitted its results to the Electoral Commission and the majority of votes had gone to her party she had just stared at the screen for some time. She had frozen in astonishment. She hadn’t expected to win. Margerit had thought that her recent time away from the Empire had negatively affected her campaign. Her supporters had heralded her time away with their allies as an example of her proving to her critics just how well she can represent the Empire.

Presently she sat staring at herself in the mirror before her. She was about to join Sethilayis th’Rasfoth in an interview on his televised news show: The Rasfoth Approach. It was a weekly political commentary programme that many Andorians watched.  After being in office for fifty days, Rasfoth had done a documentary on the new chancellor and her interview would be the culmination of his work that would be aired across the entire Empire. It would be an excellent piece, publicising the life of the new Andorian leader, the great work her administration was doing as well as give the Andorian population an insight into her personal life with her family. Rasfoth was well-renowned in the Empire as one of its leading and credible political commentators; anyone who was interviewed by him was seen as someone of influence and importance. He was known to be picky on those he chose to make documentaries about. He was a voice that many listened to and agreed with. Having this positive publicity like this would only strengthen her image across the Empire. Margerit herself had been interviewed by him several times prior to her taking office. As a result, she was not completely nervous in meeting him compared to the first interview she did with him many years ago. Her chief of staff had promised Rosfoth an exclusive interview with Margerit on the fiftieth day of her chancellorship; in return he didn’t engage with any of her political opponents during that time. It was a disgusting bribe in Margerit’s eyes but as Demies had said to her (from his hospital bed on the election night) that it would be worth to have one of the most reliable voices of Andorian journalism on her side during her inaugural period. She knew that her upcoming interview would be filled with many questions on the numerous decisions she had made since coming to power. She had memorised everything the night before on what she was going to say about the reforms she had passed through Parliament. The reforms were based around the Empire’s social welfare, education and health care systems. She also knew she would be questioned on her decision to increase military spending. Thankfully her Defence and Finance Ministers over the past fortnight had been submitting to a number of interviews themselves to explain the administration’s decision to increase the Imperial Guard’s ship building efforts and recruitment process. A number of these things had increased her popularity among the Andorian people. Then only yesterday she announced her plans to solidify the relations between the Andorians and their new Coalition partners, in particular with Earth. Once again it had been received warmly by a majority of the general public, a public who were eager for the Andorian Empire to be a key player on the intergalactic stage. In her view Earth was the key to the success of the Coalition. Humanity was a neutral party between everyone else in the Coalition. They had never taken a side in the conflicts that the Andorians had been involved with against the Vulcans or Tellarites.  She needed to make those ties strong for Andoria’s future; it appeared a number of people agreed the same way too.

“You look perfect.” Spoke a low gravelly voice from her left side.

Margerit turned to look to her side to see Demies standing there with a proud smile spread across his face. Over a month and a half ago he was a sickly man, lying on death’s doorstep. Now after the miracle of Andorian medical intervention he was standing before her, ready to support her and the rest of their bondgroup in all that they did.

“Thank you my beloved.” She responded. She looked at herself one more time in the mirror. She had gone for a simple dark green skirt suit that she had purchased while on Earth months ago. Since bringing it back to Andoria she had one of the leading designers in Andorian fashion make some alterations and re-design it so the lapel was extended and precious emerald silk was attached to it as a second layer. She tugged on the ends of the jacket to smooth it as she stood. Once again, she played with the crystal and silver brooch that was fastened into the lapel. Again, it was a simple design with eight curves intertwined with each other with crystals encrusted along the inner edges. It had been a recent birthday present from her bondgroup. She stopped fussing after pushing her permed grey-white hair up a bit more. Looking at Demies she let out a breath.

“Why am I so nervous?” She asked him as he slowly approached her and took her hands into his.

“Because you’re about to appear before all of our people and they will know you are going to be the greatest leader that Andoria has not seen since Empress Thalisar herself.” He told her, referring to the last Head of State that the Andorian Empire ever had and the woman who changed the Andorian political scene over two hundred years ago.

They were interrupted by the arrival of one of her aides carrying a data tablet which contained a message for her. As she read it a smile crept across her face.

“What does it say, Margerit?” Demies asked curiously, wanting to know what had made his wife smile so much.

She looked up at him. “My invitation request I sent to Prime Minister Samuels has been agreed.”

He hadn’t been aware of what that meant. What had she originally communicated to the Human leader? “Oh, so what does that mean?” He asked her.

“It means my dear that some new friends I made recently will be joining us for dinner.” She said with joy as she passed the tablet to him and made her way past him to finally take on her interview with Rasfoth.

Demies, confused at her words, looked down at the tablet. Being a member of the Chancellor’s bondgroup gave him clearance to view certain government documents but in return he was forced to keep it all a secret for the rest of his life. He peered at the note on the tablet and read it. “Challenger?” He asked himself quietly after reading it. What was this Challenger and why would they be visiting Andoria?

“Chief Armoury’s star log April Twentieth, Twenty-One-Fifty-Five. Since joining Challenger my duties of ensuring the safety of the crew and ship continue to proceed without any issues. Leading the armoury department though has tested my patience. I still believe my transfer has caused some issues with those inexperienced crewmembers who find serving under a non-Starfleet officer difficult. Nevertheless, I wish for the record to state I am satisfied with Ensign Rachele Cortez’s performance and open-minded approach in having me as her superior officer. She has been highly supportive and helpful through the transition.”

T’Plau saved her log entry and switched off the computer screen that sat to the side of her desk. Within the confines of her personal cabin she prepared herself to perform her daily mediation before she slept. As such the room was dimly lit and lighted candles dotted around it, providing a calm atmosphere to perform her time of contemplation. Originally sat up straight in her chair, the Vulcan woman moved gracefully from there to her usual strong sitting position on the cushion she had placed on the floor.  As she began to control her breathing, she closed her eyes and allowed her mind to become as tranquil like the Voroth Sea on her native homeworld of Vulcan. On many occasions she would use the images of Voroth as a way to empty her mind of all of the issues that fogged her thoughts. She found herself entering a stable and calm sensation, until the intercom went off. Unable to ignore it she slowly opened her eyes and stood up to answer it. “T’Plau here.” She said after responding to the disturbance.

“Sorry to disturb you Sub Commander,” spoke Captain Burton, “would you join me and the rest of the senior staff in the command centre at once.”

“Yes captain.” She responded, curious as to why the captain was calling her this late in the evening.

After putting back on her uniform, Sub Commander T’Plau had left her quarters and made her way down E deck towards the lift to take the ride to the command centre on D deck. Typically, as it was the evening, the Challenger’s corridors were less busy then normal and the lighting was slightly dimmed too. When she had arrived on D deck and travelled from one end of the deck to the other, she had encountered eight crewmembers; three engineers, one medical officer and four soldiers from the MACO unit. Except for the medical officer and one of the MACO soldiers, the rest of the crew had been in their uniforms. On previous occasions when she had walked the corridors in the evenings (or on rare occasions late at night) she passed crew mainly in their civilian attire. It was not until she arrived at the command centre did she remember that Sunday evenings were designated “movie night”, a social gathering for many members of the crew in the mess hall to observe dramatically produced motion pictures. As it was “movie night”, many of the crew that would have finished their shifts would not have changed into their civilian attire because it would have not made them punctual for the beginning of the motion picture. She had attended a few of them in the previous month but had found the entire ritual illogical and unproductive. Only when she had been invited by others had she decided to attend to ensure she did not cause any misgiving towards her fellow crewmates that had taken the time to ask her to join their company. Declining an offer such as that would be a social faux pas, as such she knew it would cause tension between her and other members of the crew. She was determined to adapt to life on the Human ship that included having to test her patience with their highly illogical impulses.

Walking into the command centre she had overhead Commanders Levesque and Stanton talking about the film they had observed together, she had caught the end of their conversation. Stanton had been excited over the storyline involving the American President character from fighting terrorists off of his aircraft and saving his family from certain death.

“Ah T’Plau, good you’re here.” Captain Burton remarked after she had stepped through the doorway. She had looked around the room to see who else was here with the Captain and the two Commanders. She was impressed to see the rest of the senior staff all present too, they all were in their civilian attire except for the captain who was still wearing his uniform.

“My apologies for my tardiness captain.” T’Plau said, noting the possible social inconvenience her late arrival may have caused.

Burton simply dismissed her apology with a friendly smile and a shake of his head. “You’re not late Sub Commander; I was already working in here and this lot,” He said indicating to the others, “were altogether in the mess hall off duty.”

“And we missed the ending of the film too.” Stanton stated in a slightly light-hearted manner.

“Michael, you’ve seen the film before.” Burton countered back as he placed his hands against his hips to look at his Second Officer and Chief Engineer. The captain had been standing almost centre in front of the large wall mounted computer display in the room. “Now the reason why I called you all here,” He started with. “I’ve been reviewing our logs of our work since the Romulan skirmish at Archer Four and entering them all into the database. We’ve scanned and catalogued more space than Enterprise and Columbia did in their first fifty or so days, so I wanted to say first to you all how proud I am of our accomplishments. Thank you for all of your hard work. Please make sure you pass this on to those who work under you too.” Burton paused as he now leant against the edge of the wall monitor. “However, you are all aware of the current interstellar political climate. Even with the formation of the Coalition, these are uneasy times for Earth and its Commonwealth. With the attack on Coridan, the Coalition has increased its patrols of our shipping lanes. Enterprise and Columbia have both been assigned to help out with these patrols. In recent days a number of Earth Cargo Ships have been attacked by hostile vessels, mainly mercenary ships. But a combined task force of Coalition ships has been able to defend them.”

“Cap’n please tell me we aren’t being reassigned to join this fleet?” asked Ensign Conrad from the back of the room. The young pilot looked displeased at the idea of them being moved away from their mission of exploration. It was a trait that T’Plau had found fascinating to observe among the Humans on Challenger; they all wanted to explore and preferred to do so instead of engaging in hostile situations. A logical and commendable objective she noted to herself. Their passion to explore outweighed almost everything else; it was an unusual characteristic of a species. Yet, she was surprised that it was Ensign Conrad who had made such a comment. In the time she had taken to become familiar with him she had found him to be quite “pro-Boomer” as Commander Stanton had put it one night. He had served on an Earth freighter for many years and believed the Boomer society to be able to deal with anything without the constant support of Starfleet. Stanton had said he found it ironic that their pilot believed that, especially as he now wore the Starfleet uniform. So for Conrad to display his displeasure at the idea of joining a force to protect cargo ships seemed uncharacteristic, she had expected him to be the most eager to protect the non-military ships.

Burton looked at the pilot with solemn expression. “No, we’re not joining the fleet.” He answered truthfully, however T’Plau noticed another expression creeping across on the captain. Something she believed showed there was something else he had to say.

“We’ve been ordered to Andoria.” He said clearly for them all to hear.

Many of them began talking amongst themselves pondering over what he had just said.

T’Plau now spoke up. “Has Admiral Gardner stated why sir?” She asked directly. She had inferred that Captain Burton would have spoken with Admiral Gardner recently and such a diversion from their current mission to one of the Coalition homeworlds could only have come from a direct order from the admiralty. Logically Gardner was most likely to be one to make the order to Burton.

“He has.” Burton said, appearing grateful for T’Plau asking him and quieting the rest of the senior staff down to listen to him. “It’s for a good thing actually.” He said, trying to convince them. “The new Andorian chancellor has formally invited us to join her as honoured guests.”

“Honoured guests?” Stanton repeated, appearing confused at what that meant.

“I was just as confused as you Michael on this one.” Burton said before beginning to explain what was going on. “Apparently we impressed Chancellor Margerit at Denobula and at Archer Four. For our efforts she wants us to join her in the opening of the new Earth Embassy on Andoria and to be guests at the state dinner she is hosting.”

“Fascinating.” T’Plau said towards what was transpiring. “Not in the history of my own people’s dealings has a newly elected Chancellor ever invited a non-Andorian to the homeworld for a state dinner so early on in their term.”

“Well Admiral Gardner has said this is something we can’t turn down and our own ambassador, Ambassador Agos, is hoping our presence will solidify the strong relationship that Chancellor Margerit has been promoting between the Andorian Empire and the United Earth Commonwealth.” Burton added. He looked at everyone around the room. “I know this is annoying, I want to be exploring as much as you do, but we need the Andorians as a strong ally right now, especially with the Romulan threat and these current attacks on our shipping lanes. Once this is all over, we can get back to what we’ve started, hopefully.”

Commander Levesque cleared her throat before speaking. T’Plau had found it unusual for their first officer to remain so quiet during a meeting without adding her thoughts on the discussion at hand. As such T’Plau had expected Levesque to speak up soon; she was satisfied her estimation had been proven right. “Sir,” Levesque started with. “Has Admiral Gardner stated how long we’ll be at Andoria?”

“We’re simply there for the opening ceremony and the state dinner so hopefully two days, possible three.” Burton answered honestly. T’Plau had noticed that the captain’s tone of voice seemed quite frustrated with the turn of events and was doing his utmost best to convince his senior staff that this was a good thing, even if he didn’t quite believe it himself completely. “Any other questions?” He asked, looking around the room.

T’Plau looked around at her peers; Major Yu had remained silent, standing still like a statue. Doctor Kefira had stood next to her and was also in a motionless state, arms crossed against her chest. Ensign Hennessey had been sat in one of the chairs by the unusual T-shaped desk in the centre of the room. He had remained quiet too, listening attentively to the exchanges happening between the senior staff. T’Plau had not many dealings with either Kefira or Hennessey to date, but she had yet to see any evidence to consider them to be nothing but excellent officers. She felt the same about Major Yu, whom she worked with almost on a daily basis. She found the counsel of the MACO detachment commander to be refreshing and always logical. The two of them had shared many meals together in the mess hall too. As T’Plau looked at the three of them she was expecting one of them to say something but none of them did.

“Alright, let’s get on with this. Jack, lay a course for Andoria, best speed.” Captain Burton said, disturbing the short amount of silence that had lingered after his previous question. “The rest of you make sure the crew and ship are fully ready for our arrival at Andoria. We should expect to host a tour and possible reception for Ambassador Agos and possibly the Chancellor too. Let’s show them how proud we are of Challenger. Dismissed.” He ordered.

T’Plau grasped her hands together behind her back and turned on her heels to leave the room as ordered. She wasn’t the first one out however as she made her way out, she noticed that her colleagues had headed away in a separate direction from her, as such she was startled at the voice of Captain Burton coming from behind her. “Sub Commander can I walk with you?” He asked in a calm tone.

She stopped in her tracks and turned to look towards him, she answered with a simple bow of her head. The moment they were side by side she continued walking with him. She could not anticipate why the captain would wish to walk with her back to her quarters.

“T’Plau I wanted to say thank you.” He started as they made their way down a corridor. “I’ve been highly impressed with your work ethic since joining us; I know it mustn’t have been easy for you adjusting to working with Humans. I hope we haven’t made it too difficult for you, especially with the smell. I know Vulcan women possess a heightened sense of smell.”

“Not at all sir.” T’Plau told him honestly as she looked at him. “My nasal numbing agent helps with the… aroma.”

Burton snorted at T’Plau’s diplomatic attempt. “That’s one way of putting it.” He said. “Unlike others in Starfleet, who in particular four years ago would be against a non-Human serving on their ship, I believe we need to work on developing strong relationships with our galactic neighbours. I firmly believe in the Coalition and hope it only moves into something greater.”

“An ambitious and bold vision,” T’Plau said without asking permission to speak, “If you don’t mind me saying captain.” She added.

“Not at all.” He answered, still smiling. “As such I appreciate your input on everything to date Sub Commander and I’m planning to use it more, especially with this mission to Andoria.”

“Oh?” T’Plau asked, curious to what he had in store for her.

They turned down a corridor and he answered her. “No one on this crew has been to Andoria except for you. From where I stand that makes you our resident expert on Andoria and its people.”

“Your confidence in my abilities is gratifying sir, however my two visits on Andoria were for classified security matters, as such they were short in their duration and I did not visit the entire homeworld.” T’Plau said quite bluntly. She was impressed that he had read her file and had remembered the information stating that she had been to Andoria.

“However short-lived Sub Commander, they make you more of an expert on Andoria than me. What I’m getting at T’Plau is simple this.” He said and stopped walking, as did she, and looked at her. “I’m going to depend on you to advise me on ensuring I don’t make myself look foolish in front of them. I need you to brief me on everything you know about Andorian society, its culture and customs.”

T’Plau raised her eyebrow. “That does fall into the job description of Ensign Hennessey as Chief Communication and Protocol Officer.”

Burton nodded in agreement. “Yes, it does and I’m sure Ned will do an excellent job briefing me on the official things that the database tells him, but I want an insider’s opinion on it too. That’s where you come in. You’ve moved among Andorians in their own land. You’ve seen how they behave in their surroundings.”

“I still do not believe what I have witness will give you a greater insight into their society sir.” T’Plau said, almost protesting at what the captain was expecting from her.

“I beg to differ. Where is the logic, that when you are preparing a strategy about an opponent that you don’t know about, if you don’t use all of your assets to ready yourself for them?” Burton countered back with.

T’Plau considered the captain’s argument for a second and nodded in agreement. “I see your point. Do you see the Chancellor as an opponent though?”

Burton laughed at that comment and gestured for them to resume their walk. “No, but in my experience so far T’Plau when it comes to politicians, whatever race, there is always something that puts them on the other team from you. You just need to know how to work them to keep them friendly!”

Commander Levesque had found that Commander Stanton had followed her out of the senior staff briefing and was now walking by her side.

“Did you see that?” He whispered to her as they turned down a corridor away from the rest of the staff who were departing from the command centre.

She looked over her shoulder to see what he was indicating and then back to him, confused as to what he was going on about. “See what Michael?” She asked, copying him with a low voice.

“The captain and our Vulcan sub commander!” He uttered with his eyes almost bulging out.

Levesque shook her head, baffled at what he was going on about. “What about it?”

They walked past the door for the atmospheric processing room when he finally answered. “He asked her to walk with him, and during that meeting they were exchanging a lot with each other.” He said, still with a suggestive look on his face.

“Michael,” Levesque said, now returning the volume of her voice to normal, “What are you going on about?”

“You don’t see it?” Michael flabbergasted. “The sexual tension between them!”

The first officer now just slapped her palm against her forehead and shook her head in utter disbelief with what Stanton had just said. She never would have thought he would have said such a thing when they first joined Challenger. He came across as the quiet, withdrawn type however the last few weeks he was starting to grow in his confidence – in particular with his relationships with her and Captain Burton. Levesque found herself enjoying their offtime together as well as when they worked together on ship business. “You really are losing it Michael. There is no tension between them! For one thing she’s a Vulcan and I’m pretty sure the captain once said she was married.”

Stanton froze from where they had been walking and looked at Levesque. She had stopped when she had realised he was no longer by her side and turned to look at him. “You’re jealous!” He quickly said.

“What?!” She almost screamed back at him.

“She’s an attractive woman, has great assets and has a high rank.” Stanton replied as he crossed his arms against his chest.

“Michael, you do know you’re completely talking out of your rear end!” She threw back at him. “I am not jealous of T’Plau in anyway, in particular her relationship with the captain.”

“But you do like him!” He now said.

“And what does that mean?”

“You like the captain.” He repeated, emphasising on the word ‘like’ to suggest something more than what it really meant. “I mean I don’t blame you; he is a pretty attractive guy and has a personality you could melt for!”

Levesque frowned in an almost Vulcan manner. “Are you sure it’s not you that fancies him and is jealous of their relationship?”

“Ha!” He replied. “As I said he’s a handsome chap, I can see why the Denobulan people fell for him – he is quite the charmer but I am one man’s man and I’m pretty sure Alex would hunt me down across the Commonwealth if he found out I was involved with the captain! Plus, he agrees with me that the captain is hot!”

“I can’t believe we’re having this conversation!” Levesque said, rolling her eyes as she walked away from him.

Stanton quickly jogged after her and continued walking by her side. “Look Nicole, all I’m saying is he’s free, you’re free and you both get along pretty well. There aren’t any rules against fraternising within the ranks.”

She quickly looked at him. “I’m pretty sure there is Michael when it comes down to those involved in the chain of command, especially the captain and first officer!”

He shrugged his shoulders. “So, what if there is? What’s Starfleet Command going to do about it?”

“I’m pretty sure Admiral Gardner could pull our pips.” Levesque said. “Anyway, I’m not going to have this conversation with you. Nothing is going to happen between me and the captain. End of story!”

“Whatever Nicole! I see the way you look at him on the bridge and in particular how annoyed you were at how much attention he was giving T’Plau in that briefing!” Stanton said in a more serious tone.

At that point Levesque found herself blushing, had she been doing that she asked herself or was Michael just winding her up even more?

“Just stop staring at his bottom when he stands up from the captain’s chair,” Stanton added with a cheeky boyish grin and suggestive wink. “Even if he does have a firm one to drawl over!”

Levesque slapped him on the back of his head for that comment. “I do not do that!” She added.

“Ow!” He exclaimed as he rubbed where she had smacked him. “Okay, you don’t!” He said in surrender. “But you gotta admit it that you two would make an adorable couple!”

Levesque just glared at him and remained quiet for the rest of their walk down D deck, deciding not to engage Stanton any more with what he was going on about. She never thought of Captain Burton in that manner before. Yes, she would admit they got on really well, they always had a similar train of thought on various issues, shared a similar sense of humour and she enjoyed his company off duty too. Stanton was also right that he was quite the charmer too; a characteristic she had decided was why Captain Karim had originally picked Burton as her First Officer. Not only did he have the tactical calculated mind of a fine strategist, but he also balanced that out with a charismatic approach that would have served her well if she was still alive and commanded Challenger instead of Burton now. It was also one of the traits she believed why Gardner had promoted Burton to captain. He always kept an open view on all issues and was one who would want to know everything first before jumping in and making a decision. These were things she liked about serving with Burton. She shook her head slightly, trying to stop herself from thinking about the captain the way that Stanton was suggesting. Captain Burton and her would never be a couple like that…would they?

“Bridge.” Ensign Conrad said after entering the lift with Ensign Hennessey and tapping on to the controls on the side. The young pilot leant against the lift’s wall while the linguist remained standing with his hands behind his back.

“So much for joining Starfleet to explore strange new worlds.” Conrad mumbled to himself.

Hennessey turned his head to look at the young pilot. “Excuse me, ensign?”

“Sorry,” Conrad huffed to himself, almost sulking like a teenager. “When I agreed to join Challenger, I was thinking that we would be going off to explore worlds that no Human has been to before. Not ones that have already been explored.”

Hennessey grimaced at Conrad’s personal predicament before giving him his view. “You may not like our new destination Jack, but consider the journey we are about to take. We’re about to be involved in another round of developing this new Coalition we are part of. It’s bigger than us and it’s important we see to the success of this mission.”

“I know that.” Conrad said, now uncrossing his arms. “I was just hoping for something more than having to attend another diplomatic function!”

At that remark Hennessey chuckled to himself and looked back to the lift’s door.

“What?” Conrad asked as he stood up from leaning against the back wall. “What did I say that was funny?” He was confused at Hennessey’s reaction.

The communication officer looked back at Conrad. “Did you not say last month that if we attended more glitzy parties you were happy to return to Starfleet?”

Conrad thought about it for a moment before answering. “Actually, it was Major Yu who described the signing of the Coalition Compact to be glitzy; I just said if we got to attend such events regularly then it was worth returning.”

“I think you’ve just argued yourself out of your strop then.” Hennessey remarked as the lift came to a halt. He gave a smile towards the younger officer before leaving him in the lift alone for a moment to think about what he just said.

Conrad cursed himself and his big mouth before following Hennessey out onto the bridge. He was annoyed for being so green when he joined. He would definitely watch what he said in the future.

Major Viktoria Yu kept her focus on the report she was reading, she was almost finished with it and she wanted to ensure she had digested every single word. “That looks fine Rupesh.” She finally said as Yu looked over the data tablet that she had been reading from and up at her detachment’s First Sergeant: Staff Sergeant Rupesh Iyer. 

“Thank you, ma’am.” The Pakistani sergeant replied with a gentle nod.

“Ensure our teams understand that we may not be engaging in a hostile race, but the Andorians respect the military and strength. I don’t want the MACOs to make Captain Burton look bad if he invites their Chancellor to tour the ship again with any of her generals.” Yu said as she passed the data tablet back to Iyer.

Iyer nodded again. “I’ll ensure the troops are clearly briefed ma’am.” He added.

“I know Lieutenant al-Fayyad is planning a number of inspections in the coming days, let’s make sure that Khawla doesn’t have any issues too.” Yu mentioned, referring to her Egyptian deputy. 

“All teams will have their boots shining bright enough for the lieutenant to see her face in them!” Iyer joked back.

Chuckling at his confidence, Yu nodded in approval of Iyer’s attitude. “Make it so Sergeant. Is there anything else?”

“Only that I’m happy to report that Private Jenkins has passed another module in his field medic exams.” Iyer stated with some pride.

“Excellent!” Yu said, pleased with the news. She stood up from where she sat in her office, in the charcoal grey leather chair by her desk and walked over to where a pot of coffee sat. She picked up the pot, gestured towards Iyer if he wanted one. He declined the offer with a shake of his head and the raising of his right hand. As Yu poured herself a cup, she motioned for him to sit down on the small grey leather sofa that sat up against the opposite wall. Their meeting was now moving to a more informal atmosphere and she wanted Rupesh more relaxed as they spoke. “I knew Liam would be a good addition to the detachment.” She said in between sips of her coffee as she made her way back into her comfortable desk chair. Crossing her right leg over her left one after she sat down, she carried on talking. “On top of that I think Ensign Stewart is a great influence on him too.”

“He certainly seems less green.” Iyer agreed. “His performance in our last four drills have been outstanding, in fact he even outdid some of our more experienced troops. He seems more focussed compared to how he was when he came on board.”

“High praise there Rupesh!” Yu exclaimed. “If he keeps this up, he’ll be in line for a promotion.”

“It would be rightly earned.” Iyer said. “I suggest we add him to the captain’s bodyguard unit when he visits Andoria.”

Yu took a sip from her coffee mug. “Hmmm.” She said. “I’m still not convinced with Sub Commander T’Plau belief that the captain could be a target from extremists on Andoria who are against the Coalition.”

“Nevertheless, being prepared isn’t a bad thing, surely ma’am?” Iyer asked, interested to gain her view on the subject.

“Yes, you’re right Rupesh but on the other side does it prove we trust our Andorian allies if we send the captain down with a whole team of MACOs to escort him?” Yu countered back with.

“Then can I suggest we reduce the number down?” Iyer considered.

“T’Plau wants an equal amount of MACOs to Armoury personnel.” Yu said before taking another sip of her warm black coffee.

“Then send just Jenkins, and then she would only have to send one of her people.” Iyer suggested.

“Just Jenkins? Do you think he’s up to it?” Yu asked.

“He is and by the time we reach Andoria I will make sure of it.” Iyer said confidently. “So, what do you say Major?”

Yu looked over her mug at the Sergeant. “I say: why are you still sitting here trying to convince me? Get out there and get our boy ready!” She finished with a slight chuckle. 

Iyer grinned at her and stood up from the sofa, leaving the major’s office swiftly. As he left Yu spun herself in her chair to be in line with her desk, she placed her coffee mug down on it and looked at her computer screen and sighed. She now had to think of a plan on how to persuade T’Plau to cut back on the heavy guns she wanted to assign to the captain’s protection.

“Ouch!” Crewmember Harris screamed as the osmotic eel was pulled from his leg by Ro-fa Ben-Ami. The Doctor just smiled as she cleared the enlisted officer’s leg of the residual sticky secretion coming off from the osmotic eel from where she had placed it to heal the wound on his thigh. She was pleased that his scream didn’t startle some of the other animals in sickbay. Most of them enjoyed their sleep at this time of day. 

“Ah don’t be a baby Jay!” Ensign Stewart said in a joking matter as he watched Ben-Ami plop the alien sea creature back into its tank that he held. Stewart then closed the tank’s lid to avoid the eel from escaping before taking it over to where it was safely kept in sickbay. 

Harris just looked up at where Stewart headed with expression of annoyance for the lack of sympathy from his friend and the ship’s senior nurse. “Thanks Niall.” He said in between gritted teeth before looking to the doctor who was treating him. “So, has it worked?”

Ben-Ami had been studying the work the eel had done on Harris’ leg while the two men had their childish spat. “Very nicely in fact.” She answered coolly. She was quite proud at purchasing the eel and several other animals to help her with her assignment to Challenger. They had been suggested to her by a fellow colleague from the Interspecies Medical Exchange programme. She had seen them being used by Denobulans and Vulcans in various treatments, but this was the first time she had used the osmotic eel by herself on Challenger, a fact she wasn’t going to share with Crewmember Harris. When she had mentioned using them as a treatment, he had turned a dark emerald green. 

Harris began to rub his leg and pouted at the scar that was starting to form where he had been shot during a mission on a trading outpost two weeks ago. He had joined Captain Burton and Commander Stanton on a simple trading mission. They had been purchasing some spare parts that Commander Stanton wanted when they had been caught in the crossfire between the Outpost’s local law enforcement officers and two very disgruntled Rigelian-Jelnas. Harris had been shot in the leg by a plasma bullet that had bounced off a cargo container from one of the Rigelians. The curly-haired crewmember rubbed his leg one more time, hoping that it would magically make the scar disappear. “How many more treatments?” He asked in between pouts. 

Taking the medical scanner from Stewart, who had now returned to her side to observe the results, Ben-Ami scanned the damaged tissue and read the results. “At least another four, possibly five treatments, depending on how much you rest your leg, Mister Harris.” She said as she switched the scanner off and moved away from her patient to let him dress himself.

Giving out a sigh of frustration, Harris pulled his body completely round so his legs were now hanging over the edge of the central bed he had been sitting on in sickbay. Stewart passed him his uniform jumpsuit. Harris winced at the slight pain that his leg was giving him as he tried to put his feet into the bottom part.

“Here let me help you.” Stewart offered as he knelt down to avoid Harris from injuring himself any more by putting his uniform on.

“Thanks.” Harris grumbled back, embarrassed at the inability to dress himself properly and having his friend do it for him.

Ben-Ami returned to the two men as Stewart helped Harris come off the bed and passed the captain’s yeoman a data tablet. “I’m keeping you on light duties still and I’m expecting you to attend your physiotherapy sessions. If you don’t exercise those muscles in your legs, then you will cause yourself more damage, Mister Harris.” She mentioned, indicating to the tablet that contained those exact orders on it. 

Harris sighed again as he read the tablet’s contents. “Great.” He said. As a workaholic he enjoyed being on duty and as the captain’s right-hand man in almost all clerical duties he was always on his feet, running errands for the captain and other senior staff. 

“Hey if you want Jay, you can join Liam and I for a training session in the gym? It may help your muscles if they were properly stretched out” Stewart offered with a smile.

“That wouldn’t be such a bad idea.” Ben-Ami added.

Cringing at the idea, Harris replied. “Thanks Niall but last time I walked in on your training session with Liam it’s not the type of physical activity I want to do!”

“Hey!” Stewart said quickly, in annoyance for Harris revealing such a private thing in front of his superior officer. Stewart had gone bright scarlet from embarrassment. 

Ben-Ami just laughed it off after working out what Harris implied about her assistant. “Niall by now you should have learnt that hearing about your romantic encounters with Private Jenkins won’t embarrass me or get you into trouble! Just make sure you don’t get caught by the captain again.”

Scratching his head in humiliation at what she said, Stewart just nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

“But Mister Harris I would suggest you take Niall’s offer up. You’ve been neglecting attending the gym and it would mean less osmotic eel therapy if you did some training of your own. The choice is yours.” Ben-Ami remarked as she crossed her arms.

Harris looked at Stewart and rolled his eyes. “Fine but can we do it without Liam there; he gets all MACO when he works out.”

“Ha, I’ll tell him you said that!” Stewart said back with a grin. 

The doors to sickbay then opened, revealing Captain Burton to be entering. At that point all three officers appeared to stiffen in their postures and the atmosphere in the room became formal at his arrival. 

“Captain, please state the nature of your medical needs!” Ben-Ami said, greeting him with a warm smile.

Burton returned the smile. “I don’t have anything thank you Kefira.” He said and looked at Harris. “How’s the leg Jamie?” Burton asked with sincere concern for his yeoman.

“It’s getting better thank you sir.” Harris replied, grateful for his captain’s concern.

“As long as he does some work outs!” Stewart added.

Burton chuckled at that. “You better do it Jay; you owe me three squash matches. Commander Stanton just doesn’t play as fairly as you do!” He expressed this before looking at his chief medical officer. “Do you have a minute Kefira?”

She nodded after giving Harris a look to say he was clear to leave them. She motioned for Burton to join her over at the two stools that sat by her main office area. “What can I help you with sir?” She asked after sitting down and crossing her legs and leaning up against the raised desktop.

Burton had jumped into his seat and passed her a data tablet he had been holding in his hands. “I understand your friends with an Andorian doctor named Chirurgeon Nathaal  th’Oraem?”

“Natha? Yes, I am, why has something happened to him?” She asked as she took the tablet, a hint of concern coming through the end.

“No nothing bad, but he has recently been made the Chirurgeon General of the Andorian Imperial Guard by Chancellor Margerit.” Burton remarked, pointing to the report that was on the tablet. “As Andoria’s highest ranking military doctor I was hoping you would be prepared to lean on your relationship with him to see if he can give us an insider’s perspective on how things are on Andoria since the Chancellor’s rise to power.”

Ben-Ami looked up at the captain now. “Are you expecting some sort of trouble sir?”

“No.” Burton said, shaking his head. “Call it the tactician in me, but I want us to know all we can know about what is happening on Andoria before we arrive.  I want this mission to run a lot smoother than some of our others have. I thought you could get in touch and see what he would say about recent developments.”

She considered the idea for a moment. “I have to admit sir, Natha and I haven’t spoken to each other in a few months now. We met through the IME while I served on the Yorktown and we wrote to each other as much as we can. He may not have the time to respond to my communiques.” 

 “Sounds like a good time as ever to reignite an old friendship then. Even if it’s just a quick message that says you’re going to be in his neck of the woods and you would like to see him.” Burton suggested.

“I’ll see what I can do for you sir.” Ben-Ami said, after realising the captain really wanted her to do this and she understood where he was coming from. She too wished this upcoming mission to Andoria would also go smoothly. Having more information about the current situation on Andoria would definitely help them. 

“Thanks Kefira.” Burton said with a warm smile and stood up from his chair. “I owe you one!” He shouted back at her as he headed towards the door.

“Just make sure you don’t let your Yeoman get shot in your next mission!” She returned as she watched him leave with a grin on his face at her response.

Stepping out onto the bridge, Captain Burton was faced with seeing his First Officer sitting comfortable in his chair. He smiled at the image before him, his entire senior bridge crew were all working quietly and getting on with what they had to do. In his absence Levesque was able to command the ship and crew with the same distinct style he did. Since taking on these roles together he felt the two of them were an excellent team and the two of them had a number of similarities in their expectations of the crew and how they led them too.  Burton found himself enjoying having Levesque as his executive officer; she was an excellent sounding board and always gave him alternatives that he may not have considered. On top of all of this the two of them had formed a close working relationship where they could use their similar sense of humour to get through their daily work and during their off time they were able to share in each other’s interests.

The lift door behind him closed and with the swooshing sound it created, Commander Levesque looked over left shoulder to see who had just used the lift. “Captain.” She said, greeting him and slowly rising from the position she was in. “We’re just about to enter Andorian territory.”

“Excellent.” Burton said as he took over from her as they passed each other as she made her way back over to the science station. “Any signs of an escort?” He added looking at her as he sat down.

“None.” She replied a second after checking the sensors quickly. “However, Ensign Hennessey did intercept something interesting.” Levesque said and looked over to their communications officer to clarify what she was saying.

Burton turned to look at the older man sitting at the station to Levesque’s left. “Ensign?”

“Ah yes sir.” Hennessey said after clearing his throat. “We picked up a transmission from an Andorian battle cruiser that they had engaged a Malurian ship.”

“Malurian?” Burton repeated, as he thought about where he had heard that name of race before. “Didn’t Enterprise engage one of their ships in their first year?” He asked out to everyone else.

“I think you’re right sir.” Levesque responded as she quickly accessed the historical database from her console. She nodded once she lifted the file from the computer banks and began reading a brief summary of it. “Captain Archer stopped a Malurian leader named Garos from mining veridium isotopes from the Akaali homeworld; they were a pre-warp civilisation.” 

“And if memory serves me well when Enterprise did engage them in orbit the Malurians were heavily armed.” Burton.

“As are Andorian battle cruisers.” T’Plau added from the tactical station to Burton’s right. “Malurian merchants and mercenaries are known to be a deceitful and aggressive sir. If the Andorians were engaging such characters, then they are well within their rights to do sir within their territory.”

“I’m not disputing that at all T’Plau.” Burton said looking at his armour officer. “I’m more concerned at the notion the Malurians may try and take a punch at us.”

“Unlikely sir.” T’Plau replied back with. “The Malurians would not venture so deep within Andorian territory to engage us. I would summarise this situation was simple a skirmish. Vulcan ships have also engaged Malurian mercenaries on our borders before.”

Burton winced at T’Plau’s words. “Either way I want us to keep an eye out for any more trouble.” He turned to look at his communication’s officer. “And Ensign, make sure you are discreet at whatever Andorian channels we intercept. I don’t want to upset our new allies.”

“Aye sir.” Hennessey said, red faced that he may have caused a diplomatic problem for the captain later.

Burton remained seated in his chair and looked over to where Levesque sat at her science station. She noticed him looking and returned the stare with a simple smile of assurance, showing him she supported his decision. He smiled back and returned to focusing on the main viewer, a shiver went down his spine after she had smiled at him. Where was that from? He thought before returning his attention to his duties.

Imperial Bird-of-Prey ChR Dhivael

“Garos you fool, you were meant to be undetected!” T’Voras sneered at the grey skin reptilian humanoid on his main screen. T’Voras remained posed at the edge of his black leather command chair in the middle of the control centre. 

The Malurian looked down at T’Voras from where he stood on his own ship’s control centre. “Do not lecture me Romulan on what I should have done. We would have been undetected if you had not changed our rendezvous point.”

“If you had kept your warp profile masked like we had shown you then the Andorsu would not have chased you out of their territory!” T’Voras spat back. “You’re fortunate enough they didn’t destroy your ship.”

Garos smirked at his Romulan counterpart, “As luck would have it, we were able to give them a heavy blow which forced both of us into a standstill. We damaged their engines which meant they were not able to pursue us.”

“Very well.” T’Voras stated as he rubbed his chin as he leant against his chair’s armrest. The command chair was almost like a throne, if he hadn’t been of such a muscular size it would almost have engulfed him. As such he kept his regal pose before his partner, which was a phrase he found difficult to deal with. However, Admiral Valdore believed that his plan of hiring mercenaries to deal the newly formed Coalition of Planets its first blow was one worth pursuing. “We must now bring our plans ahead of schedule, rendezvous with the fleet on the edge of the Docana system at once.”

“Understood.” Garos remarked before closing the channel with a punch on his controls to his right.

T’Voras looked over to Decurion Morek. “Monitor Mister Garos.”

Morek nodded silently and went straight to his work.

“Centurion Rarek,” T’Voras said as he came to his next decision. “Put us in a direct parallel course with our Malurian allies in stealth mode.”

“Yes Commander.” Centurion Rarek said from her flight control board, into which she was beginning to punch a sequence of fast instructions into the Dhivael’s navigational computer.

Sitting back slowly in his chair, T’Voras reflected on what was happening with this current mission. He may not have been able to stop the Hevam emaifha at Gai’h’er-mne but he would be sure to see this mission be successful, whatever the cost.

Pushing her hands down her uniform to straighten out any creases, Commander Levesque looked one more time at her appearance in her wall mounted mirror. She was happy with what she saw and walked over to where her desk sat and picked up her heavy-duty uniform jacket that she would wear as part of the landing party to Andoria. As she began to zip it up her door chime went off. “Come in.” She called out as she flicked her hair out from under the collar.

The door made its usual swoosh noise and Captain Burton walked in, wearing a similar jacket and looking as handsome as ever. “Ready?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Levesque replied as she took one more look at herself in the mirror before turning to face Burton. “Are you sure we’re not meant to be in dress uniforms for this? I mean we are meeting the Andorian head of government.”

“On the insistence of Ambassador Agos, he told me that this meeting is informal, and we will be meeting with the Chancellor in her residence. Apparently where we are landing is pretty cold too.” Burton explained as he led her out of her quarters.

“I hope it’s not that cold.” She returned as she followed him out and was automatically surprised to see Private Liam Jenkins standing outside for them. “Private?” She asked, wondering why he was here.

“This is half of our bodyguard protection detail.” Burton clarified.

“Ma’am.” Jenkins nodded with pride and followed the two senior officers as they began walking down E deck towards the launch bay.

“So, who’s the other half of our protection detail?” Levesque asked as they turned left down the corridor.

“T’Plau.” Burton replied. “Major Yu and her felt that we could be targets for some of the anti-Coalition groups that have formed on Andoria.”

Levesque shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t understand some people. Why can’t everyone just agree to get on?” She rhetorically asked.

“That’s why we need to work hard on ensuring we do our best with this and show we can trust them.” Burton reminded her as they headed right along a curved corridor. 

Levesque looked behind her at the young MACO behind them. “Liam please tell me you’re armed in some way.”

 “Afraid not commander.” Jenkins replied. “Major Yu ordered me to surrender all my weapons.”

“Just you and your buff-ness to defend us?” She quipped back along with a cheeky wink and grin.

At this Jenkins just went red in the face. “If you say so ma’am.”

Levesque extended her right hand out to grab the MACO’s left hand and squeezed it for assurance. “Sorry Liam, I’m only kidding about.” She let go of his hand, realising she was probably making some inappropriate gesture there. She forgot sometimes she was the First Officer and that she had to set a standard. Beside her she saw Burton smirking and trying his best to keep his strong command posture.

Jenkins only smiled back at the commander. “No offence was taken ma’am.” He said courteously.

She smiled again at him for his politeness in her silly behaviour. “So, to save me I’ve got you, T’Plau and I suppose the captain as well?” 

Burton looked down at her when she said that. “Hey, you make it sound like me being your last option isn’t a good thing! Remember I was a former armoury officer myself.”

“I know, I know!” Levesque kidded back with. “But let’s be honest you’ll most likely be my last saviour as you’ll probably get shot at first! You are the captain!”

“Again, hey!” Burton said, showing mocked offence to her words. The two senior officers both laughed at their little exchange of banter.

“Actually ma’am.” Jenkins interjected, “My orders are to protect the captain first.”

At that mention Levesque gave out a hurt sigh. “Mister Jenkins you wound me, I thought I was your favourite!”

The MACO returned with a slight chuckle. “My apologies ma’am, but Major Yu made it clear to me I was not allowed to let the captain do anything that will get himself hurt.”

“Now you sound like my babysitter!” Burton responded back as they came to the end of the corridor and headed down straight towards the launch bay. 

“I’m still hurt that I’m not a priority!” Levesque added with a slight huff.

Burton looked down at her. “I’m sure T’Plau will watch your back Commander Levesque.”

“She better!” Levesque countered with. “Or you’re going to be stuck having Commander Stanton as your first officer.”

“Let’s not make frightening statements like that Nicole.” Burton quickly said back. “I have to leave him in command in our absence, that’s scary enough.”

“Ha!” Levesque said. “Just make sure Michael doesn’t hear you say that about him!”

Burton sniggered. “All kidding aside, I do trust him and he would be an amazing first officer!” He looked over his shoulder at Jenkins. “By the way Mister Jenkins, everything you hear from us is completely classified and not to be shared with anyone else without my authorisation!”

“Understood sir.” Jenkins said while smiling, understanding that the three most senior officers on Challenger enjoyed joking with each other when they could. It was something he summarised that they kept hidden from the rest of the crew.

The trio soon entered the launch bay where Commander Stanton stood with his arms crossed against his chest and Sub Commander T’Plau was inspecting Shuttlepod One with Ensign Conrad.

Burton and Levesque approached the chief engineer. “The ship is yours Commander Stanton.”

“Understood sir, anything you want done while you’re away? Carpets cleaned? Gravity plating re-tuned?” Stanton asked with his normal boyish grin.

Burton smiled and squeezed Stanton’s arm gently in a friendly gesture. “Just don’t scratch the paint work while we’re gone and keep your feet off my desk!”

Stanton gave him a mock salute. “Aye sir, I promise to get myself extremely comfortable in your chair.”

Burton and Levesque both laughed at this as they began to make their way towards the stairs that led down to their shuttlepod. “Just don’t adjust the height Michael; he doesn’t like it when I do it.” Levesque called back.

As they made their way towards the pod, Sub Commander T’Plau and Ensign Conrad climbed out of the craft. 

“Are we ready?” Burton questioned.

“We are.” T’Plau answered. “The plasma cannon is offline as ordered sir.”

Burton didn’t like the idea of going down without a form of fighting back in case they got shot at, but he had to show Earth’s trust for the Andorian Imperial Guard to protect them from Challenger to the surface. 

“Pre-flight checks are complete too sir.” Ensign Conrad said as he zipped up his jacket. 

“Excellent.” Burton said, satisfied that they were ready. He looked at the landing party he would be leading. “Remember this is a diplomatic informal meeting. So, let’s be on our best behaviour and remember don’t touch anything that looks valuable!”

Apart from T’Plau the rest all laughed at the last part of what he said. “Let’s go.” He commanded as he gestured for them all to get into the shuttlepod. Burton followed Jenkins in last and before he got in, he looked up at Stanton for one last time. 

“Good luck!” Stanton said with an assuring smile before leaving the launch bay to allow the smaller craft to depart.

“Thanks!” Burton called back as he grabbed the hatch and closed it down behind him.

Laikan, Andoria

The cold chilly wind hit the faces of the landing party the exact moment they opened the side hatch of Shuttlepod One. They had flown through the Andorian atmosphere without incident, under the watchful eye of a heavy escort of Andorian fighter jets and had landed their small craft on the lawn of the chancellor’s official residence on the outskirts of the Andorian capital city of Laikan. Burton heard all of them mumble something about the cold hitting them straight away; as such he was happy that he had zipped up his jacket as well as worn a pair of Starfleet standard issue gloves and scarf. Under all of that he had also put on a layer of thermal undergarments. He had read the reports of how cold Andoria could get, currently Laikan was just entering the spring season as such the temperatures ranged from anything from four degrees Celsius dropping all the way down into minus figures. Currently it was two degrees Celsius from what the shuttlepod thermometer sensors were telling them. It did not also help that the city sat along the seashore and the currents coming off from the vast arctic oceans that belonged to the Andorian homeworld most likely enhanced the wind. 

“Everyone ready?” Burton had asked after pushing the hatch open first. His team just nodded to him and Private Jenkins and Sub Commander T’Plau went out first. He, Conrad and Levesque followed suit and he closed the hatch behind him before using a small controller in his pocket to lock the shuttlepod down and place its proximity alarm on. He didn’t want any entering the ship, even if the Andorians were allies. If anyone tried to do anything with the craft they would be notified straight away by an alarm on the small controller, a signal would also be sent to Stanton on Challenger. The group walked about six metres before four soldiers, all who wore the uniform of the Andorian Imperial Guard, approached them. 

“I’m Lieutenant Carenth, Chancellor Margerit’s deputy chief director of her protection service detail.” The tall woman from the group stated with a warm expression. “Welcome to Andoria Captain Burton.” She said looking straight at the Starfleet captain.

“Thank you, lieutenant.” Burton said. “These are my officers, Commander Levesque, Sub Commander T’Plau, Ensign Conrad and Private Jenkins.”

“A pleasure.” She nodded to them all. “Please, if you follow me, I will take you into the residence where the Chancellor is waiting for you in her office.”

Shadowing their welcoming party, the group soon entered the residence that sat on the edge of a huge cliff and was shaped in a very modern style. Burton felt it looked like some of the huge mansions that he had seen in Malibu, California in the United States. It appeared to be at least three, possibly four levels high, with each level being circular in shape. Its pale blue colour reflected against the sunlight that was trying to appear through the grey clouds that currently blanketed the skyline. More Andorian guards were positioned around the perimeter of its grounds as well as around the mansion itself. The captain had reckoned the security here was just as tight as it was back on Earth for President Littlejohn and Prime Minister Samuels’ official residences and offices. 

Eventually their escorts led them into what must have been the main entrance where two large glass doors that parted sideways letting them enter into the foyer area where a beam scanned each of them and a computer voice identified them. 

“You’re all clear and safe to proceed.” Lieutenant Carenth announced as the computer beeped in satisfaction. 

“That’s good to hear.” Levesque replied sarcastically with.

Jenkins chuckled slightly and stopped himself when he tried to avoid insulting their Andorian guests. 

Carenth appeared to ignore the comment and soon led them into a large hall after they walked through another set of glass doors. “This is the main welcome wing of the residence.” She said, attempting to give them a slight tour.

Burton looked round at everything and was impressed to see Andorian politicians were like their Human counterparts, they were just as infatuated with displaying paintings of past noted leaders alongside other famous pieces of artwork, sculptures and priceless artefacts from across their civilisation.  Carenth then led them up a set of stairs that had been sat in the middle of the welcome wing. The stairs went up two floors before they reached what was their destination. 

“And up ahead are the main offices and where the administration runs the empire.” Carenth mentioned, almost gloating at how amazing this tour was going.

To Burton it was nothing special, apart from the glimpse into Andorian architecture and historical artwork, he had been in a number of government buildings before and they all boasted the same things. Showing off how patriotic and proud government officials were for their nation as well as it being a symbol of power and grandeur. 

She took them to the end of the corridor and by this time they saw an entire glass wall encircling a huge office. Two very muscular Andorians guarded the main doors, which were also made of misty stained glass. They nodded towards her and one of them opened the door allowing her to take their guests in.

Sat behind a desk (which was also made of misty stained glass) in a grey leather chair was Chancellor Margerit. She was signing some forms on a data tablet and looked up when she heard her door open. She handed the tablet to the younger man who was standing next to her. Immediately when saw the Challenger landing party she smiled and rose from her chair. “Captain Burton.” She said, greeting them as she moved around her desk to meet him halfway. 

Burton returned the smile and extended his hand to shake hers. Straight away she realised the human custom and adopted it automatically by taking his hand and shaking it before releasing it. “Welcome to Andoria, thank you so much for coming.” She said. 

“Thank you for your gracious invitation for us to join you.” Burton returned, still being polite and diplomatic. He turned to face his officers that were standing just slightly behind him. “I believe you remember my first officer Commander Nicole Levesque.”

“Commander.” Margerit said as she shook her hand.

“My chief armoury officer and third officer, Sub Commander T’Plau.” Burton said as Margerit moved through the group.

Margerit raised her hand and greeted T’Plau with the standard Vulcan V-hand salute. “Greetings Sub Commander.”

T’Plau returned the gesture and bowed her head as a mark of respect for the Andorian leader acknowledging her with her own greeting. “It is an honour to meet you Madam Chancellor.” She added.

Burton smiled at how pleasant T’Plau had been before looking at the blond hair man in his group. “This is my chief helm officer, Ensign John Conrad.”

“Ma’am.” Conrad said, bowing his head slightly towards the Andorian leader.

“And this is Private Liam Jenkins, a member of my MACO detachment.” Burton finally said.

Margerit shook the young man’s hand and smiled at him. “And let me guess Private Jenkins, you are here to look out for the captain?”

“Yes ma’am.” He said and then realised he may have insulted her. “That’s not because we don’t believe Andorian security is good enough ma’am, it’s just that the protocol now states that a captain can’t leave the ship without at least one member of the ship’s MACO detachment.” 

Burton hid his smirk at Jenkins’ bluff, he was impressed at how quickly he recovered that one.

“I totally understand your predicament Private Jenkins and I assure you I don’t hold any grudge towards your assignment and reasons for it. We have similar protocols here on Andoria for high ranking government and military officials.” She turned to look at Captain Burton. “And Captain Burton is certainly becoming a high-profile man these days. We can’t lose him.”

At this point the captain attempted to stop himself from blushing, he did half a job of it. “Private Jenkins is an outstanding member of my crew.” He added.

“From what I saw last time, the entire crew of the Challenger are outstanding, captain.” Margerit stated. “Please all sit down.” She said gesturing towards the leather sofa and armchairs that sat in the middle of the room.

Once they had all sat down Margerit, who had taken the armchair which was just in front of her desk and next to the sofa that Burton had sat on with Levesque, looked at the captain. “Captain, I’m so pleased that Prime Minister Samuels was able to agree to my request to have you come here.”

Smiling at that, Burton looked at his officers before looking back at her. “As I said earlier, we’re very honoured for the invitation to be here and we’re looking forward to the opening ceremony of the new Earth embassy.”

“Excellent and Ambassador Agos is an absolute credit to your government, in particular to Foreign Secretary Campbell.” Margerit said. “For someone at such a young age he has achieved so much, I look forward to working with him to develop our strong friendship between our two nations.” She paused. “That all aside, I didn’t just ask you here to be my special guests for the opening ceremony, but I wanted to speak to one commanding officer to another.”

“I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at Madam Chancellor?” Burton said, confused as to where she was going with. He knew she had military background and still held her retired rank of general in an honouree position (however that was defunct as she was the official appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Andorian military) but what did she mean by that?

“I know you’re relatively young for your position, like Ambassador Agos, however us soldiers see things differently compared to politicians. I know that since being a member of the Parliament of Andor and being an ambassador, well things aren’t as you humans say: black and white as they used to appear when I was in the Guard.” She explained then proceeded to stand up to walk over to the large glass wall that looked out at the huge ocean that sat beyond it. “The winds of change are on the horizon captain, we found ourselves on the periphery of entering something much bigger than either of our nations has dealt with before, possibly something even bigger than our Coalition ever thought possible.”

Burton sat up straight on the sofa he was sitting on. “Are you talking about us taking our place on the galactic stage ma’am?”

She turned to look over her shoulder and nodded. “I am and with it come consequences. Your own world was attacked two years ago, the Klingons don’t like the idea of our alliance arising on their doorstep, the Orion Syndicate and every other criminal organisation out there sees us as a threat to their livelihoods,” She paused before turning around to completely face them. “Then there’s the Romulans.”

“The Romulans.” Burton nodded in agreement. He knew exactly where she was going with this. “If you should be truly concerned about any threat to our alliance it isn’t the Klingons or the Orions ma’am, it’s the Romulans. They didn’t like us teaming up last year against their drones and they didn’t appreciate our recent skirmish with them in the Archer system.” 

“Let’s not forget that many believe they were behind the attack on Coridan last month.” Levesque piped in with, “And didn’t Starfleet Intelligence even believe the Romulans were behind orchestrating the Orion attack against our convoy that was heading to Denobula?”

Burton nodded and then T’Plau spoke up. “The Vulcan Security Directorate came to similar results from their own investigations involving the attacks against the diplomatic convoys.”

“My own Security Advisors believe that as well and my heart and mind are telling me that they were behind the Coridan massacre too.” Margerit said. “So, Captain Burton, what do you think we should do about it?”

Burton felt like he was placed on the spot right there and then. “Well, umm…” He stumbled, concerned he may be influencing the head of government of an ally that could possibly go back to his superiors and tell them what he said, he would most likely get into trouble for it. “I think we need to take the danger they possess as serious. Strengthening the Coalition would not only benefit our own worlds but could be a deterrent for them from doing anything else against us.”

“That’s very diplomatic of you captain.” Margerit said with a friendly smile. “Do you believe we should strike back against them now? Remove the threat they possess against our Coalition security?”

“What you’re suggesting ma’am is something the Coalition was not founded on or what it was meant for.” Burton answered back. “Yes, together as military allies we are stronger to deal with threats, but the Coalition was truly formed on the notion that peaceful living together outweighs military might. Along with peace coexistence, the ideology of promoting fair commerce between our nations with the exchange of scientific knowledge and cultural beliefs being vital too.”

Margerit nodded. “I see spending time with Secretary Campbell has given you a delightful and wise insight to the political stage Captain Burton.”

“It’s not Secretary Campbell’s insights on the matter that I share with you ma’am.” Burton returned as he stood up where he had been sitting. “It’s what I firmly believe in. I joined Starfleet not for the military conquest but to peacefully explore this amazing galaxy we live in.”

“I respect your beliefs captain, and I apologise if I have upset you.” She said, “But as a man who has served as a tactical officer for his entire career I was hoping for a friend’s view on this matter. Having someone’s thoughts, who is from outside of the Empire, would be of great assistance to me.”

Burton took a moment and looked at her. “I’m honoured you seek my counsel on this issue Madam Chancellor. Have you not spoken to Ambassador Agos about this? Or Secretary Campbell? Prime Minister Samuels or even President Littlejohn?”

She chuckled at this and slowly made her way back to the chair behind her desk, appearing all-regal like a monarchy taking their place on a throne. “As I said earlier captain, I wanted a non-politician’s view on it.”

“Well,” Burton said as he considered his response to this. “If you would allow me, I would like to take some time to reflect on the matter before I give you my complete response.”

She nodded after a while and kept her smile. “I will give you your time to think about it, captain, and I appreciate your honesty on this. I know I am putting you in a difficult situation and you are trying to avoid any diplomatic blunders.”

Burton nodded in appreciation.

“I won’t keep you any further captain; I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow evening at the ceremony.” Margerit said as she rose to see her guests out of her office.

“Thank you for your hospitality.” Burton said for the group as they were led out of the room, once again by Lieutenant Carenth and back to their shuttlepod. Burton wasn’t sure how that ended, either Margerit got what she wanted, or it ended us bitterly cold as the weather was outside in the Andorian capital city.

“And this is the mess hall.” Ben-Ami said to her guest as she led them into the large room. It was past midday and as such there weren’t many officers sitting down taking a break. 

“Once again you impress me with your new home Kefira.” Uttered Chirurgeon Nathaal th’Oraem from behind Ben-Ami as he gazed around the room. Nathaal th’Oraem was slightly taller than Ben-Ami; he appeared to be his early forties and was slightly slimmer than other Andorian men. As a man of medicine, he had a gentle approach in his mannerisms and was extremely polite. 

“Can I get you a beverage?” Ben-Ami offered as she stepped round to the wall mounted drink dispenser. 

The tall Andorian man nodded in gratitude. “That would be lovely, thank you.”

“Are you still fond of Earl Grey?” She asked, remembering how much he had enjoyed the English beverage. She suspected that he had yet the opportunity to taste any since their last encounter. 

“I have to admit Kefira, I haven’t had it since I last saw you on the Yorktown, but a mug of Earl Grey would be most welcomed.” He answered, pleasing her suspicions.

Ben-Ami picked up two mugs from the side cabinets and put one into the drink dispenser. She pressed a button and spoke to it. “Earl Grey, hot.” She ordered. The dispenser answered by filling the mug up with the warm beverage. Once it completed its task, she passed the drink over to her friend before getting a mug of lemon tea herself. After her drink was ready for her, she gestured for them to take the nearest available empty table to sit at. Ben-Ami got comfortable in her chair and wrapped her hands around her mug. It had been some time since the two of them had spoken and she found herself enjoying playing host at the moment. Ben-Ami began to understand how the captain enjoyed showing off Challenger to other visitors. It certainly beat her having to deal with some of the mundane tasks that came with her job. She watched as her companion took the mug in his left hand and took a few sips from it. He smiled at it, pleased at the flavour that now tickled his taste buds.

“It’s just as delicious as I remember it.” He reported back to her, still grinning. 

“So Natha how have you been?” Ben-Ami asked after taking a sip from her mug.

“Well, thank you. My new position keeps me busy and my bondgroup is expecting our third infant next month.” He answered with a proud smile, showing off his extremely white teeth.

The onslaught of the good news made her copy his grin. “Ah congratulations all round then” She said. “Do you know what you’re having yet? Chaan, thaan, shen or a chen?” She asked, listing the four Andorian genders.

Natha shook his head after another sip. “I’m afraid my bondmates want to keep the gender a surprise until birth. However, whatever its gender I look forward to receiving it into our warm family.”

He certainly wasn’t like most typical Andorians, she reminded herself. He broke against the social norms of those who served in the Guard as being confrontational. It was certainly refreshing, Ben-Ami considered, especially as Challenger had dealt with a lot of conflict since its launch. After another sip Ben-Ami asked her next question. “Do you get a lot of time to spend with your family since you took on your new position?” She had an undercover mission to start and she knew that Captain Burton would want her to find out as much as she could. Cleverly, she had planned her questions so she could lead Natha in the direction of the conversation she wanted to engage him in.  Already she had taken him on a tour of the ship, shown in depth Challenger’s sickbay and shared with him some of the cases she has had to deal with since becoming the ship’s Chief Medical Officer. She had hoped engaging him in things that weren’t related to what Captain Burton wanted her to find out that Natha would naturally drop his guard and share with her anything that Captain Burton may find useful

“The last few weeks have kept me away from home, however my offices have been moved to the capital which means I will be able to commute to work from home with less hassle.” Natha replied. “Although I have a feeling the chancellor will send me on a tour around the Empire to inspect various medical facilities with our Health Minister. My sources in the Health Department have heard rumours of such a thing happening. Her new reforms on our Health System are being scrutinised by many in the media to see if it will make a difference, especially to the less wealthy families.”

At the mention of the chancellor, Ben-Ami kept herself completely focussed on what her colleague was saying. She didn’t want to forget any important details. “What type of reforms has she instigated?” Ben-Ami naturally asked.

“A completely new empire-wide health system that gives the same level of universal care to everyone, it doesn’t matter how wealthy or powerful your family is.” Natha said before taking another sip of his tea. “Her plans include building more hospitals and medical centres across Andoria, investing into the training of doctors and nurses as well as increasing spending into medical research.”

“Wow, that’s impressive and she’s done it within fifty days of being in office?” Ben-Ami inquired. 

“It was all part of her party’s manifesto before the election.” Natha explained. “Health, Education and the Social Welfare systems were top of their agendas. They believed that these needed to be changed to support all Andorians so the Empire could prosper on the galactic stage. A stronger Andoria at home is a stronger Andoria out there.” He gestured towards the view that was currently being shown from the large bay windows. “She also believes that for the Andorian Empire to thrive we need to strengthen our ties with our allies and maintain the peace we’ve fought hard to get with the Vulcans and Tellerites.” He added before his body became stiff as he carried on speaking, “Then only the other week she announced an increase in military spending to help with starship production and recruiting for the Guard.” That last part made his tone of voice change to one of strong concern.

Ben-Ami nodded to show she was listening and understanding his point of view on the issue, “What’s been the public reaction so far?” 

“Positive. It’s why she won a landslide victory in gaining well over a majority of the seats in the Parliament. And the new recruitment efforts are doing well. She knows what needs to happen.” Natha said and then placed his mug down on the table. “Sorry Kefira, I’ve been talking about boring politics. Tell me more about your new posting here on Challenger, are you enjoying it?”

Ben-Ami smiled, inside she was cursing herself for not encouraging him to say any more about the chancellor on the other hand she felt she wouldn’t get anything else out of him before he started to realise she was fishing for answers. “Oh, I’m very happy here. This is a next step for me, real frontier medicine. Nothing gets the blood boiling like the unknown!”

Natha chuckled at that comment. “I’m sure it does, do you not miss your work with the Interspecies Medical Exchange programme?” 

She smiled at that. “I still collaborate with the I.M.E. but not as much because of my duties. I’m still in touch with some of our colleagues; in fact, a few of them said since you’ve taken your new job you’ve been trying to get the I.M.E. to setup a research group here on Andoria?”

“Indeed my good friend and I’ve been very successful!” He replied with a sense of pride. “Even with Andoria’s young membership with the I.M.E., they were very happy to explore the possibility. In fact, there is an opening in my group that you would fit in perfectly!”

Ben-Ami smiled at the offer. “I appreciate it, but I don’t think Captain Burton would appreciate me jumping overboard so early on in our mission.” She said, realising that she wasn’t going to get anything else out of him.

“So that was it?” Burton asked from across the conference room’s table, his chin sitting within his left palm as his elbow lent on the surface of the table.

“I’m afraid so, sir.” Ben-Ami said, sounding apologetic that she hadn’t uncovered some great state secret to share with them all.

Burton shrugged his shoulders. “It was worth a shot, thank you Kefira. At least you were able to catch up with a friend.” He said and then sat up straight and looked at the other three officers in the room. Commander Levesque shared his look of disappointment on her face while both Commander Stanton and Sub Commander T’Plau appeared completely neutral. They had just returned from the surface and while they had been meeting with Chancellor Margerit, Ben-Ami had met with her friend the new Chief Chirurgeon of the Andorian Imperial Guard. Burton looked to Levesque. “Commander your thoughts.”

“Without a doubt I don’t think there’s anything suspicious here that we should be worried about, except for the Chancellor asking for your personal thoughts on the Romulan threat.” She answered honestly. 

The captain nodded in agreement and looked at Stanton. “Nothing happened while we were gone?”

“I’m afraid not sir, nothing out of the ordinary.” Stanton replied, opening his hands to show he had nothing to provide to the discussion. “Our escorts kept close and watched over us the entire time. Normal shipping occurred and Ned didn’t pick up anything unusual on the communication channels. I even had him link in to the Andorian news feeds to monitor them, but nothing came out of that.”

Turning himself in his chair he looked at the only non-human in the room. “T’Plau your views?”

T’Plau remained calm as she told the captain what she thought, “Chancellor Margerit is acting differently compared to other Andorian Chancellors before her, though I believe this is because she is unlike any other Chancellor. She is highly progressive in her ideology. Her background in being someone from an underprivileged family who has worked hard to quickly move through the ranks of the Imperial Guard is something to take note of. Her predecessors have all come from wealthier families. I believe it is also a reason why she won the election with such high success. Many Andorians relate to her background and appreciate her values that hard work, resilience and determination does pay off. She also holds the respect of the entire Andorian military. Not many chancellors before her ever served in the Guard as long as she has. She promised many changes during her campaign and to date she has delivered on every single one of her promises and more. I believe she is genuine sir, and her request for your thoughts on the Romulan threat is what it is: her asking for someone else’s opinion on the issue, particularly someone who is outside of her administration.”

For a few seconds Burton mulled over what T’Plau and the others had said, as he did he lent back in the chair slightly, it tilted backwards in line with his movement. “Okay.” He said, sounding almost defeated.

“Captain, are you expecting something else here?” Stanton asked, with a genuine sense of concern in his voice. “Do you think the Andorians are deceiving us in some way?” He added.

Burton sat up and lent forward, placing his hands on the table and grasping them together. “Everything I’ve read about our encounters with the Andorians, or at least Captain Archer’s dealings with them, there has been something that has happened which has always led to them benefitting in the end results, from the monastery at P’Jem to when they tried to help Enterprise against the Xindi, even to what happened last year during the Romulan drone incursion. There’s always something.”

“Those incidents you refer to sir have always included one particular Andorian,” T’Plau stated. “Commander Shran.”

Burton nodded. “I know but he was carrying out orders laid out by his superiors.”

“My point is sir,” T’Plau quickly countered with, “is Chancellor Margerit is brand new. So far our own personal dealings with her she has not shown any forms of being deceitful and her actions have proven to us that she can been honourable.”

“We need to give the new administration time to prove to us that we can trust them, they are our allies now sir.” Levesque added.

“True.” Burton said. 

“On the other hand, there is nothing wrong in keeping a cautious eye open too.” Stanton said. “Just in case-”

“Bridge to Captain Burton.” Spoke Ensign Hennessey’s voice over the intercom.

 Burton pushed his chair away from the table and walked over to the communication’s panel on the wall and tapped the answer button. “Go ahead Ned.”

 “Sir, you and the others need to be up here now to see what is happening.” He said with concern in his voice.

Burton gestured with his head for them to all move. “We’re on our way.” He replied, his stomach almost dropped at how he was almost right that something wrong would happen while they were at Andoria. 

“Definitely spoke too soon,” Stanton mumbled as he followed the others out of the room. 

Burton led his senior staff out of the lift (apart from Ben-Ami who had returned to sickbay) and automatically they all walked towards their stations.

 Ensign Hennessey rose from the captain’s chair and turned to look at his superior officer. “Sir both our escorts have broken orbit from us and are moving away at high impulse.” He explained as he began making his way over to the communication’s station. “And they’re not the only ships on the move.”

“What’s going on?” Burton asked, deciding to remain standing in front of his chair.

Levesque quickly picked up the latest sensor feeds at her station. “I’m detecting at least fourteen ships underway and moving fast, all heading in the same direction.”

“The ships are all bringing their defence systems online too.” T’Plau said from what she was picking up on.

Stanton had made his way over to the engineering console by this time. He had a look at the readings too. “They’re all warships and battle cruisers and I’m picking up three fighter carriers on the move too.”

“There’s also more movement from several ships docked in the shipyards sir.” Levesque said.

Burton was trying to work out what was going on for so many Andorian ships to be on the move. “Is there something out there they are moving to intercept?”

Ensign Conrad who had been sat at the helm had pulled up his sensors. “Nothing that I can see, but their formation looks like a standard fleet defence posture sir. I would say they are assembling a task force.” He shared as looked around and up at the captain. 

Hennessey who had placed his earpiece in quickly turned to Burton. “I think I have something captain.” He tapped on his controls and quickly switched the main screen to something else. “Commander Stanton ordered us to monitor the Andorian news feeds; this is coming live now.”

The screen activated and the appearance of an Andorian man standing inside what looked like one of the rooms in the Chancellor’s residence. “We’re getting unconfirmed reports now that the Andorian Imperial Guard is in the process of amassing a task force just beyond Andoria now.” Where he was in the residence looked like an area for the press to meet at a regular meeting as a glass podium stood in the centre of an arc of chairs. There was some commotion as the door to the left opened and several people walked in, one of them being Chancellor Margerit. “The Chancellor has now arrived; we will see what she has to say.” The news broadcaster stated as the camera switched to focus on the Andorian leader.

Margerit took the podium and took a breath before speaking. “Thank you all for coming in so promptly, I will try to make this short as possible as there is a lot to do here.” She said looking at all the journalists assembled before her. “My fellow Andorians, it is with great sadness that I report that only a quarter of an hour ago we received a general distress call from our colony on Docana. The colony reported they were under attack. As such I have ordered the Imperial Guard to assemble a task force that will leave shortly to investigate.  Docana is one of our furthest colonies; its protection is important to our sovereignty.  Whoever these attackers are, I assure the Andorian people will find them and they will answer for what they have done. I’ll quickly answer some questions.”

Someone quickly shouted out at her, “How many ships are you sending?”

“A task force of eighteen ships will be originally sent and once we know the colony is secure, relief ships will be sent in afterwards.” Margerit said, anticipating their questions. 

“Who will be leading the task force?” Another asked.

“That’s classified for now.” She answered coolly. “Okay, one more question.”

“Will you be asking help from anyone in the Coalition?” The news reporter that the Challenger bridge crew were originally watching asked.

“I will be sending a request to Captain Burton on the Challenger if he will be prepared to join the task force to aid us in being a mediator if they require it as well as providing any medical assistance too.” She answered. “Thank you everyone.”

“Are we at war, Chancellor?” Someone quickly shouted out.

Margerit had been preparing to leave the podium at that point, she paused and turned back to answer the question into her microphone. “It will depend on what the task force finds first, but if someone has attacked us then yes I can promise you we will go to war to show them the Andorian Empire does not respond well to attacks against its citizens and I expect our friends who signed the Coalition Compact to join us in making such a statement.”

Captain Lloyd Burton stared at the screen for another second before looking at Hennessey. “Shut that off now, ensign.” He said calmly, he felt his stomach rise a bit. “Get me Admiral Gardner and Ambassador Agos straight away.” He ordered next before turning to Levesque. “Commander with me now.” He said, indicating for him to join him in his ready room. He turned on his heel and made his way over to his office. “Michael, you too. Sub Commander, the bridge is yours.” He commanded as he made his way in. Both Levesque and Stanton had stood up from their stations and were quickly following him in. 

The second the door closed behind Stanton, Burton turned around to face them after momentarily pacing the room, he looked up at them both and spoke up. “That moment we just discussed about something wrong happening has just arrived. Your thoughts?” He said to his two most senior officers.

“Wait for orders from Starfleet.” Levesque said bluntly. “We can’t be getting ourselves involved with Andorian issues unless ordered to do so.”

Stanton nodded in agreement. “Nicole is right, but under the articles of the Coalition Compact, if a world belonging to one of the signatories is attacked then any nearby allied ship is expected to offer assistance if they can. Unfortunately, sir we are nearby and able to offer assistance.”

“Even if we do go, sir, we have to tread carefully here even if it does say all of that in the Compact. We can’t be bringing Earth into a war with a species for all we know we’ve never met before. We need to think about Earth and the Commonwealth’s security too.” Levesque added.

“Agreed.” Burton said as he stopped pacing his small office and crossed his arms against his chest.

“What is impressive is that the chancellor is prepared to find a peaceful solution, her idea of including us in the task force to be a peace mediator proves she is serious about avoiding a war.” Stanton said as he leant against the wall that had the pictures of previous ships named Challenger hanging from it.

“However, she made it quite clear at the end that she would do whatever it took to defend the Empire, including going to war.” Levesque responded back as she crossed her arms against her chest.

The three of them went quiet for a moment until the intercom chime going off interrupted the silence. “Bridge to Captain Burton, please report to the bridge at once.” T’Plau voice said over the speaker.

Burton gave out a huge frustrated sigh as he pushed his hands through his hair and then made his way to the door. He pressed the button to open it and the two commanders followed him back out onto the bridge. “Report.” He said in a stern voice, trying to remain composed in the current situation.

T’Plau lifted herself out of his chair in the centre of the bridge and looked at him as she did. “Sir, Chancellor Margerit is hailing us on a secure channel and is requesting to speak to you.”

“Damn it.” He muttered under his breath. He was hoping for a bit more time before he had to speak to her. He wanted to at least try and engage with either Admiral Gardner or Ambassador Agos over this first. He looked over to Hennessey as T’Plau moved past him and made her way back to the tactical station at the same time both Stanton and Levesque reported to their stations. “Ensign have you been able to raise either the Admiral or Ambassador?”

“I’m afraid not sir.” Hennessey said from his station. “The increase in comm traffic has prevented us from getting a clear channel open to either the Embassy or Earth. I’m trying to clear through the interference.”

“Keep trying; meanwhile put the Chancellor up.” Burton ordered as he stood with his hands firmly grasped together in front of him.

Hennessey complied with his orders and opened the channel to the Andorian leader for Burton. 

“Chancellor Margerit.” Burton said being diplomatic in his tone by keeping it as neutral and calm as possible.

“Captain Burton, my apology for the lack of communiqué of what is currently happening before we took it public. One of our furthest colonies has been attacked and we are preparing a task force to investigate.” Margerit explained from the same office that Burton had met with her only an hour or so ago.

“Yes, we noticed our escorts moving away to join it. I’m afraid though we haven’t been able to make contact with our Embassy to discuss with them our options.” Burton said, trying to remain as still as possible while he kept his poker face on. Making that last comment was his bold attempt in remaining in control of what happened to Challenger, for now. 

“I’m afraid the planet-wide communications system has gone into overload with the news. I will have someone look into that for you as soon as possible. In the meantime, I would like to make an official request to you.” She stated, just as calmly as Burton was remaining.

“Oh?” Burton said, deciding to let her take the lead on their conversation here.

“Yes, I would like to officially ask the help of your ship in responding to the distress call from our colony and possibly act as a peace mediator between us and those who have committed acts of aggression against our nation.” Margerit said with a strong conviction and a warm friendly smile. “Under the article of the Coalition Compact such requests can be made to allied states.”

Burton nodded to show he understood what she was asking. “I understand the agreement between our two governments Madam Chancellor, and I am happy to provide medical and humanitarian assistance to your stricken colony, however I need full authorisation for such a large-scale mission from my superiors. I need at least an hour to get their response.”

Margerit smiled, she automatically detected Burton wanting to stall for time so he could speak to his superiors to clear it through them to prevent a diplomatic incident. “The task force is still assembling and won’t be fully supplied to leave at least for another three hours captain. I’m happy to wait to hear what your superiors have to say.”

“I will let you know what they say ma’am. We may have to break orbit to get a clear channel opened to Earth.” Burton remarked. 

“Of course. Do whatever you need to do, captain. Margerit out.” She said before closing the channel.

Burton finally sat in his chair. “Jack, move us out of orbit, clear of the interference.” He ordered his pilot.

“Captain, if we beam down a portable communications amplifier to the Embassy, we would be able to cut through the interference.” Stanton suggested.

“Sounds like a plan commander, make it happen.” Burton ordered and smiled to his second officer for coming up with such an ingenious plan to help them. “Jack hold your course until Commander Stanton has transported his amplifier down.”

The pilot nodded as he punched in more commands to his console to cut Challenger’s engines. “Aye sir.”  

Burton looked over at his communications officer. “Once they’re done ensign, I want to speak with Earth as soon as possible!”

Thursday, April 24th, 2155

Starfleet Command Headquarters, San Francisco, United States of America, Earth

“What the devil is going on admiral?” 

Upon hearing the shrill British accent belonging to Starfleet’s Commander-in-Chief, Fleet Admiral Moira Hathaway, Rear Admiral Samuel Gardner turned his entire body round to greet his superior officer. “Ma’am, we’re still trying to determine the situation.” He answered, gesturing to the various monitors situated around the room that had officers all quickly working hard at them.

Hathaway gave out a slight tut sound at the lack of an update from one of her officers as she walked through the glass doors into the ‘Hub’. She also didn’t appreciate his tone and commented that she couldn’t deduce herself that was what they were doing.   

The ‘Hub’ was the designation for the central management area where, deep within Starfleet Headquarters, the complete day-to-day of Starfleet’s operations occurred. It was a large oval shaped room that was sunk into various sections. Around the edges, different Starfleet officers operated various computer stations, as they monitored different areas of the United Earth Commonwealth and kept in touch with Starfleet assets in and around them. Then on the edge of the middle of the room more stations were located to oversee other operational matters. Finally, in the centre of the room was a huge oval shaped table that had an interactive display embedded into it. Known as the ‘command pool table’, it was where the most senior officer would work from and deal with all matters that required command authorisation.   

Looking at Admiral Gardner, who was standing by the central table, she wondered if the man would ever give her a straight answer the first time she asked. In the last year since his appointment to Chief of Starfleet Operations she rarely received a comprehensible answer from him the first time she asked him what was happening. “Samuel I can see that, but I want a straight answer to what is happening overall. I have the Director of Starfleet Intelligence informing me they have intercepted a call between two Andorian ships stating one of their outermost colonies has been invaded, Prime Minister Samuels is briefing the president now as well as assembling the cabinet as we speak and I have just been informed from the Head of Starfleet Communications we are unable to raise either our embassy on Andoria or Challenger. I want to know more than this before the Prime Minister makes his next call to us!”

Gardner winced at the ear lashing he just received from his boss. “Sorry ma’am. Right now, what we do know is that the Andorian colony on Docana has been attacked, but by what or whom we do not know.” Gardner answered looking from where he stood. “We believe the radio blackout currently being observed around Andoria could be for two possible reasons, one the home world itself has been attacked as well or there’s a lot of interference from the source meaning the Andorians are preparing their response to the situation.” Gardner nodded towards the large wall screen that currently showed a map of the Andorian Empire’s territory. It highlighted the home system along with the location of Docana. Next to them it also showed space belonging to the Tellerites and Vulcans as well as where the Andorian Empire shared a border with the United Earth Commonwealth. “Unfortunately ma’am, Challenger was our closest ship and we are unable to determine what is happening at this point in time. Our nearest ships are three days away at their best speeds.”

“Challenger is our closest ship admiral. Let’s not count Captain Burton out just yet.” Hathaway said sternly, emphasising on the fact that they had yet confirmed if Challenger was destroyed or not. “Have some faith.” She added as she examined the picture before her. She noticed that the ships that Gardner had mentioned in the last bit of his report were actually a small task group of Starfleet ships, which was unusual for so many ships to be assigned together close to Andorian territory. “What’s that task group up to?” She asked, pointing to it now on the table before them.

Gardner tapped on their information and their names, registration numbers and classes all appeared. “Umm, Task Group Omega-One ma’am. They’ve just finished small combat exercises with the Vulcan High Command; they’re heading to Vega colony for re-supplying before returning to their duties as part of Earth’s defence fleet.” 

“And those four ships are three days away from the Andorian border?” Hathaway asked, seeking clarification.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Who is in command of the task group?” She asked.

“Captain Ramirez on the Intrepid.” Gardner stated without looking at any information.

“Contact Captain Ramirez and inform him to take his task group to the border and to find out anything else he can about what is happening, short of breaking the Coalition Compact. Tell him his priority is making contact with Captain Burton.” Hathaway ordered.

“Yes ma’am.” Gardner replied and looked to one of his aides to send the orders at once.

“Now show me where Enterprise and Columbia are.” She commanded.

The ‘pool table’ came to life as the current map changed to show the location of the other two NX-class ships currently in operation. “They’re escorting a large convoy of Earth Cargo Service ships towards the colony on Denver.” Gardner announced. “They’re over two weeks away from Andoria at warp five.”

“That’s if they could sustain warp five for two weeks.” Hathaway muttered. “Okay,” She said, tapping her fingertips on the edge of the table as she looked at their options. She had to prepare for the worst, if a member of the Coalition had been attacked and if it was like the attack on Coridan then she needed to ensure the planets within the United Earth Commonwealth were aware of what was going on and were supported. “Where do we stand with launching Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour?” 

Gardner raised his eyebrows in an almost Vulcan fashion, showing he was perplexed at the admiral’s question. The plan around the next three NX-class ships had been to build all of them at the same time as each other and for them all to be launched at the same time. Originally Challenger would have been launched alongside Discovery but delays in Discovery’s construction had prevented that and the recent diplomatic mission that Challenger had carried out had been a priority for the United Earth government. The two ships would have been launched on April 5th to celebrate the anniversary of First Contact Day, the day when Zefram Cochrane had taken his first flight on the Phoenix and had caught the attention of the Vulcans prompting them to make contact with Humanity. Roughly off the top of his head, Gardner knew that the three latest NX-class ships were to be launched at the start of next month now if there weren’t any issues. He brought up the latest up to date production timetable for the three NX­-class ships. “Discovery and Atlantis are scheduled to undergo their next system checks tomorrow morning, Endeavour will have its next checks the day after that.”

“Inform their captains to assemble their crews and begin preparations to launch by tomorrow evening.” Hathaway ordered after a brief lull. 

“Ma’am those checks are required to be undertaken to ensure the safety of the crews. Plus, Endeavour doesn’t have a full crew assigned to her yet.” Gardner reminded her.

She looked directly at him now. “Then tell the yard supervisors they have to be done by the end of today and I want Captain Demetriou to stop being fussy in picking his crew. He has until the end of the day to pick his crew.” Hathaway tapped on the pool table and brought up the previous map of what was happening in the Andorian Empire. “We may need those three ships from the looks of things.”

“Yes ma’am.” Gardner said reluctantly.

“Inform all ships and bases to go to tactical alert too.” Hathaway instructed. “We need to begin looking at assembling defence forces near to our colonies too.”

“Yes ma’am.” Gardner said again as he began to take note of her orders.

The two flag officers were interrupted by the arrival of Hathaway’s assistant, Commander Jane Astley. “Admiral, the Prime Minister wishes to speak with you.” She said after stepping up on to the raised platform where Hathaway and Gardner were. 

Hathaway nodded and turned to look at one of the large screens in the room. She inclined for Astley to transfer the call to that monitor. Astley pressed a few buttons on the data tablet she currently held and placed the call on to the screen that Hathaway had pointed to. The image of Prime Minister Samuels sitting at the end of the table along with other members of his cabinet appeared. The politicians were all assembled in the situation room that was housed underneath the residence and office of the Prime Minister in Paris. 

“Fleet Admiral Hathaway, I’ve just spoken with the president and she wants more information. So what do you have for us?” Samuels asked, deciding not to engage in pleasantries.

“Good Morning Mister Prime Minister,” Hathaway said, deciding that she would engage him with the pleasantries. Behind him she noticed sitting near to Samuels were Deputy Prime Minister Kalinda Malik, Defence Secretary Matthew Stark, Foreign Secretary Madilyn Campbell and Home Secretary Haroun al-Rashid. “We’ve learnt that the Andorian colony on Docana has been attacked and that there is interference preventing us from contacting anyone in the Andorian home system.”

“Do you know what is causing the interference?” Secretary Stark asked. Matthew Stark was an American from California in his early forties; he had jet-black hair that was swept back in a modern way that was complimented by his stylised goatee. His piercing hazel coloured eyes made him quite handsome. He was the Member of Parliament for the west coast constituency of the United States. The former Chief Executive Officer of a successful international munitions company, he decided to run for Parliament at the request of Samuels in the previous general election. Now his wife ran the company while he worked as Earth’s Defence Secretary, many in the press believed there would be a conflict of interest in him having the position but his wife, along with the governing board of their company had agreed not to re-sign their contract with Earth’s defence agencies while he held the office. Since his wife succeeded him, she had pushed the company to begin researching in the fields of energy and communication advancement. They were now becoming one of Earth’s rising companies in these industries. 

“Unfortunately, no Mister Secretary.” Hathaway answered. “However, we are preparing to send a task group to the border to see if they can get through the interference and establish contact with Challenger. In the meantime,” She now looked back at Samuels, “I highly recommend we place all of our forces on high alert and begin to pull ships back to our colonies to prepare to defend them.”

Samuels took in a breath as he rested back into his chair and considered the admiral’s advice. He looked to Stark, “Matthew, your thoughts?”

“I agree with the admiral, this could be a similar attack to what we witnessed at Coridan. I would prefer we weren’t caught with our pants down this time.” Stark responded, his dry sense of humour coming out at the end of his answer.

“We should also continue to try to pursue all diplomatic channels too.” Secretary Campbell added. “We are still waiting to hear from Ambassadors Soron and Gouth on where their governments sit on this.”

“Agreed,” Deputy Prime Minister Malik said, piping up to support Campbell’s suggestion. “We don’t know who has attacked the Andorians and that is still not completely confirmed. We shouldn’t jump the gun yet.” Kalinda Malik was of Indian descent and had been Samuels’ running mate in the last general election. She held the parliamentary seat for central India and had been a MP for almost seven years now. A former professor of politics, similar to Campbell, Earth’s press labelled the two women as Samuels’ two most powerful women in his cabinet. In fact, the “big offices” of the cabinet, except for the Department of Defence and the Home office, were all held by women. 

“I appreciate what you’re saying Kalinda, but we could end up seeing mushroom clouds on Vega, Proxima, Mars or worse Earth. I would hate to think we didn’t do anything.” Samuels stated. He turned to look back at Admiral Hathaway. “Admiral, order your ships to fall back to the nearest Earth colonies and to begin setting up defence positions around them.”

Hathaway nodded, “Consider it done sir.”

Samuels looked at Stark. “Matthew, inform the heads of our military to place all of our forces across the Commonwealth on high alert.” He looked to Campbell, “Madilyn, make a request for an emergency meeting of the Coalition Security Council at once. I want you to meet with our counterparts and find out what they know and what they’re doing.”

“I’ll make my way to San Francisco at once.” Campbell said as she rose from the table, collecting all of her paperwork and computer tablet that had been laid out in front of her.

Samuels looked to his Deputy. “Kalinda I want you to meet with the Commonwealth representatives from our colonies and tell them what we know and what we are doing. Have them coordinate their forces with our efforts.” Then he looked to al-Rashid, “Haroun, ensure all local law enforcement agencies are made aware of the situation and that they get the message to the public to remain calm until we know otherwise.”

“Once this goes public sir, we will have the press wanting to know details straight away.” al-Rashid commented. 

“Then I’ll tell them what we know already, it’s a possibility that an Andorian colony has been attacked, we are taking all possible precautions to ensure the Commonwealth’s security but the public should remain calm and vigilant and once we know more we will let them know.” Finally, Samuels turned back to Hathaway, “Admiral let me know the moment you’ve heard from Challenger.”

“I will sir.” Hathaway replied courteously. 

“We’ll be in touch if the president wants to know any more.” Samuels said and nodded to the Starfleet Commander-in-Chief before closing the channel.

For a second no one said anything or did anything, including Hathaway. In that second, she realised that this would be as big as the Xindi attack on Earth only a couple of years ago. Though this time Starfleet wouldn’t be in panic trying to deal with everything. They would be ready, she hoped. She took a breath and began barking out her orders.

Challenger NX-03

“I can assure you, Mister Ambassador, we are doing all we can to re-establish contact with Earth however the increase in communication around Andoria is making it difficult for us to clear up the interference in sending out a clear signal.”  

“I appreciate your efforts in this Captain, but I am concerned that with Chancellor Margerit’s recent request of your presence in this task force it may cause more issues for us.”

Burton sighed as tried to remain calm in speaking with Ambassador Agos. Currently he was sitting in his office, off from the bridge talking to the Earth Ambassador to Andoria via the computer screen on his desk. They had been able to beam a portable transmitter down to the new Earth embassy and were able to get past the interference that Andoria was currently existing with. Since the news of the attack on the Docana colony the Andorian public had gone into a frenzy. Chancellor Margerit had already publicly addressed the Empire, explaining to them what had happened and what she was preparing to do. It was now making many of the diplomats from the Coalition worlds, who were residing on Andoria, nervous to think that so early on in its formation the Coalition of Planets would most likely end up going to war.

“I understand your concerns about this sir, but I think it might be worth going.” Burton explained to the ambassador. Ruben Agos was the same age as Burton and reminded the Challenger’s captain of his brother Roman in appearance and some mannerism. This was his first Ambassadorship; he had been working under Foreign Secretary Campbell as a peace envoy for some time and when the ambassadorship for Andoria came up she felt he was the right person for the job. He was smart, charming and kept a cool head about himself. Many in the media back home had criticised Campbell’s appointment of someone so young however he had proven those critics wrong since becoming an ambassador two years ago. “We’ll be able to get a clearer picture of what has happened and if we’re there we may be able to help avoid the Andorians going to war against whoever attacked them. Without a doubt Chancellor Margerit wants us there to help with that.”

Agos considered the captain’s argument for a second. “Alright but keep me apprised and the second you are able to get through to Earth let them know what you know.” 

“I will.”

“Good luck.” Agos said before closing the channel, allowing Burton to leave his office and make his way back on to his bridge. 

“What did Ambassador Agos say?” Levesque asked as she turned around to face Burton, as he stepped through the doorway. She had been standing in the centre of the bridge, watching over everything in the captain’s absence. 

“He isn’t happy about us going but he appreciates that by joining the task force we could make a difference.” Burton answered as he approached her.

Levesque nodded as she crossed her arms. “So, we’re going?” 

“We are.” Burton said firmly with conviction.

“Okay.” Levesque said, not sounding too convinced that this was a good idea. She left the captain’s side and made her way over to the science station.

Burton sat in his chair. “Ensign Conrad, lay in a course that brings us alongside the Andorian task force at the edge of the system, full impulse.”

The young pilot acknowledged with a simple, “Aye sir.”

“Ensign Hennessey,” Burton continued. “Inform the chancellor’s office we are moving to join the task force to provide relief efforts for Docana.”

The older communications officer nodded once and began putting the message together to send at once. 

Burton sat upright in his chair, for a split-moment he thought he could feel everyone staring at him in shock at the choice he had made without consulting their superiors at Starfleet Command. However, he knew that he couldn’t wait to speak to Starfleet about every decision he made, they wouldn’t have put him in the captain’s chair if he wasn’t tough enough to make them. He just hoped and prayed he was making a good call with this one though.

The almost burning sensation touched his lips for a quick moment before the hot liquid travelled down his throat. Slowly the tea sent a warm and cosy sensation through his body. Captain Burton took another sip before putting the mug back down on his desk in his office. and returning to the work he was carrying out. After his decision yesterday afternoon to join the Andorian task force, along with the inability to make contact with Earth, he had focussed his energy on preparing the ship to provide support to their new allies. As such Burton had left quite a bit of his administrative tasks to one side, a matter of fact that his Crewmember Harris had reminded him before he called it a night and decided to go to bed. It was now early in the morning, just past oh-eight-hundred hours, and he had made the effort to get up and get on with what he had left to do the night before. He had been up for almost two hours now. In fact, he hadn’t slept well. All night he kept on waking up, wondering if he had made the right call to agree to join the Andorians. The loudest voice at the back of his mind was telling him that being with the Andorians was the best choice then leaving them to their own devices to deal with the unknown attacker and possibly plunging them all into war. His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden noise of the door chime going off.

“Come in.” He said quietly, keeping his focus on his computer screen for another few more seconds. At the corner of his eye he saw Levesque and Stanton enter, both of them with serious expressions plastered across their faces.  “Good Morning.” He said to them as he reached for his mug of tea again.

“You weren’t at breakfast?” Levesque quizzed him straight away with.

Burton knew that the unusual change in their morning routine would make them both suspicious as to what he was up to. “Sorry, I had tons of reports to go through.” He answered, gesturing towards his work on his desk. In all honesty he didn’t want to engage with them both straight away this morning. Both of them had made it clear to him that they were unsure of his decision to join the Andorians. They hadn’t said it outright to him but the way they acted yesterday for the rest of the day made him suspect they felt that way. Along with that they had placed their concerns in writing to him. His gut feeling was confirmed earlier when he had read their joint message, reporting that they felt he should have waited to speak with Admiral Gardner over the issue. “I had chef bring me something up here.” Burton added.

The two commanders exchanged looks of worry between each other before looking back down at him from where they stood. “Have we upset you sir?” Stanton asked with concern.

Burton picked up the data-tablet with their message on it and waved it in the air. “It’s not like you two to submit an objection in writing.”

The two of them lowered their heads, like naughty children being told off by a teacher. Levesque nodded, understanding how disappointed Burton must have felt with their actions. “We’re sorry sir but we both stayed up last night talking about this and we know you feel we will do more good than harm by joining the Andorians; however we feel we should have waited to get approval from Command at least.” Levesque stated.

“I appreciate your candour,” Burton said as he placed the tablet down. “and I see where you both are going with this, however I did speak with Ambassador Agos over this and he may not have the same level of authorisation as Admiral Gardner does in ordering where we go, the Ambassador though is supporting us and has a lot of influence with those high up back home. On another note we can’t allow this new coalition to fail just because we are too scared to help our Andorian allies in seeing what has happened on Docana. We’re not following Andorian orders either.” He paused and looked at them both. “I’ll note your objections in my log, but I need you both to get on board with this now.”

Stanton nodded to Levesque. “You have it.” She said.

“Good because I don’t want to have to deal with a mutiny either.” Burton responded with a slight grin.

“That would never happen sir; both of us aren’t good at shooting compared to you, so we would fail before we had a chance to pull a phase pistol on you!” Stanton joked.

The three of them laughed lightly at that. “Good but remind me to give you both some more fire practice. I would hate to have you both with me and you can’t defend yourselves properly!” Burton said, still with the same sense of humour in his voice. He turned himself back to face the computer monitor on his desk. “Back to the issue at hand though. I’ve been looking at Kefira’s plan to use our cargo bays as lodgings if we have to accommodate any colonists. I think it’s a good idea, but I’m worried about the environmental controls-”

“Bridge to Captain Burton.” Spoke Sub Commander T’Plau after the intercom buzzed.

Burton paused himself as he answered after tapping the comm panel on his desk. “Go ahead T’Plau.”

“Sir, we are receiving a hail from the Intrepid. Captain Ramirez wishes to talk with you.” She announced.

Burton looked up at Levesque and Stanton, all three of them smiled at the news. “I’m on my way to the bridge.” He replied and quickly got up from his chair and led the other two out onto the bridge. “Put Captain Ramirez up.” Burton ordered the moment he stood in front of his chair.

The main screen changed from showing the rear view of the Andorian task force at warp to that of Carlos Ramirez, Intrepid’s skipper, sitting in his chair in the centre of his bridge. “Captain Burton, it’s good to finally hear from you.” He said with a warm welcome.

“Likewise, Captain Ramirez.” Burton replied courteously to his first skipper. It had been almost twelve years since the two of them had served together, back when Ramirez had just been made captain of the Intrepid. Burton had served under Ramirez for almost three years as an armoury officer, gaining new experience based on what he learnt from Starfleet Training Command. In fact, Ramirez owed Burton his life after he had saved him twice during those early days. As such Burton had a feeling what Ramirez was about to ask so he preempted it. “We haven’t been able to get a clear signal back to Earth.”

“That’s why we are here.” Ramirez explained, pleased that Burton was able to explain quickly what had happened to them. “Starfleet wanted us to find you and to confirm what is going on.”

“The Andorian colony on Docana has sent out a distress signal, part of the call stated they were attacked. As a result, the Andorians have assembled this task force to respond.” Burton summarised. “We were asked if we would join them to provide relief efforts, I wasn’t in a position to say no.”

Ramirez nodded in approval. “I understand the position you were placed in, captain, I’m sure I would have done the same thing.”

“Thank you, captain.” Burton said confidently, glad that he had support from a fellow Starfleet captain in his decision, particularly one of his role models. “I suspect Admiral Gardner is eager to find out what was happening and where we were?”

“Indeed.” Ramirez answered. “The entire Earth Commonwealth has been put on high alert after Intelligence intercepted an unconfirmed report of an attack on an Andorian world. At the time the Intrepid along with the Apollo, Drake and Akagi were finishing off joint fleet exercises with the Vulcans when we were sent to find out what happened to you.”

“Well we appreciate you coming out this far to make contact.” Burton responded as he slowly sat himself down in his chair. “What do you need to do now?”

Ramirez scratched the back of his head. “We’ll report back to Admiral Gardner that you’re fine and then head to Vega to help with defences there.”

“Could you postpone heading to Vega straight away captain? We don’t know what state the colony is going to be in once we arrive. The more hands we have to help, the better.” Burton pleaded, hoping his old skipper still had the heart to never turn down helping out someone who needed it.

“I can’t see why not. Docana is in the same direction as Vega, even if just the Intrepid and Apollo stay with you. Drake and Akagi could head straight to Vega to help out with defences there.” Ramirez suggested. 

“I appreciate you and your task group joining us.” Burton said with a friendly smile. 

“Actually, Captain Burton, if we join Challenger then officially the task group becomes yours. Starfleet directives clearly state that in a situation involving more than one ship, command falls to the captain with the superior ship.” Ramirez said.

Burton hadn’t even thought of that, especially as Ramirez had been a captain longer than him and the man was almost a decade older than him. He would be more than happy to defer command to the Spanish captain but the protocol stood and he had used it in their mission to save the Archer system from the Romulans a few weeks ago. “Let’s see what Admiral Gardner says first.” He replied with. 

“Very well.” Ramirez said. “I’ll arrange a conference call with him with all the captains in the task group shortly.”

“Excellent.” Burton stated. “And again captain, thank you for turning up when you did.”

Ramirez smiled back at Burton. “Consider this part of the payback I owe you, Intrepid out.” He said before closing the channel. 

Automatically Burton rose from his chair. “Commander Levesque the bridge is yours.” He said, making his way to his office. “Ensign Hennessey once the conference call comes in from Intrepid, pipe it through to my office.” He added before opening the door to the small corridor that connected the bridge to his office.  

“Aye sir.” Hennessey replied, staring at the captain as he left them all on the bridge to carry on with their duties.

“That can go to the hydroponics bay and so can that.” Commander Stanton instructed as he pointed to two large chests in front of him. He looked at the two crewmembers that began to load the containers onto the trolley they would use to move them. 

“Commander, where does this need to go?” spoke Crewmember Harris. 

Stanton looked over to where the captain’s yeoman stood, studying a large cylindrical shaped container. He walked over to him and read the label before finding where it could be put on the data tablet he held. “Parts storage bay, C deck.” He answered.

“On it.” Harris replied as he loaded it into the trolley he was using.

“How’s the shuffle round going?” spoke a friendly female voice behind Stanton as Harris moved the container away from him.

Stanton turned on his heels to face Commander Levesque. “We’re getting there but we’re going to have to make sure we remember where we’ve put everything. Turning part of the cargo bay into an emergency triage centre isn’t as simple as I thought it would be.”

The first officer just nodded as she looked around the room at the various crewmembers helping with the work. “Will we be ready by the time we arrive at Docana?” She asked, looking back at the Chief Engineer.

“Oh, we will if the good Ro-fa has anything to say about it.” He answered, gesturing with the data-tablet in his hand to where Challenger’s chief medical officer was. Currently Ro-fa Ben-Ami was working with a few of the MACOs setting up beds and laying out essential medical kits that they would use. 

“Excellent.” Levesque said after looking at where Stanton had pointed. She gazed back at him. “How are you doing?” She asked quietly.

Stanton had resumed his work trying to work out where various items needed to be moved to so they could make room in the cargo bay. He carried on working as he answered her question. “What since our little telling off this morning?” He asked, for a split second he looked at her. “Still feel terrible.” He answered truthfully. “I wished we had spoken to him directly instead of sending that message.” Stanton added, referring to their awkward moment with Captain Burton earlier that morning. 

“Me too.” Levesque said, keeping her low voice as she leant against one of the containers and grasped her hands together. “Have you noticed since Intrepid’s arrival he’s distanced himself from us?”

Stopping what he was reading, Stanton looked over to where Levesque was. “It’s only been about seven hours since then Nicole.” He replied before looking back trying to read the label on the box before him. “But yeah I have noticed.”

“I know command is tough, but I didn’t think we would have this problem.” She whispered. 

“Did you not have any run-ins with Captain Hernandez? Or disagreements?” Stanton asked as he pushed the box off the shelf it was on and lifted it over to a nearby cart that was labelled to be sent to the armoury. 

“No.” Levesque answered honestly as she tugged on her left earlobe, hating the conversation they were having.

“Unfortunately, Nicole, the position we’re both in means we have to sometimes make tough choices that aren’t going to be popular with the crew.” He said after letting go of the box and turning to give her his full attention. “And on other occasions those choices aren’t going to be popular with Lloyd. But we’re here to be his sounding board and offer him the chance to reflect on alternatives.”

“You’re right.” She murmured. “I just didn’t see this happening so soon, especially as the three of us were getting on so well and becoming close.”

Giving her a genuine smile, Stanton stopped moving for a moment. “I know what you mean, I thought the same, but fate doesn’t want us to think that way obviously. Give it time, things will hopefully return to some normality.”

“I suppose this is new for Lloyd too. Before he was always the sounding board for his skipper, now the roles have swapped. He needs to get used to it.” Levesque remarked.

“Precisely.” Stanton said. “On some level he’ll understand where we were coming from and appreciate that we did it to help him.” The Chief Engineer extended his hand and warmly squeezed Levesque’s left shoulder for assurance. “Now are you going to stand there and help me or are you going to carry on moping around?”

Levesque smiled and playfully shoved his hand off her shoulder. “I suppose I can offer you some help!” She returned while deeply still thinking about how her relationship with the captain had changed. Deep down in her heart she was kicking herself as she found herself enjoying their relationship; she seriously hoped she hadn’t caused too much damage from it.

Entering the captain’s private dining hall, Montana Lawson held the tray in her hands tightly and moved over to where she could see Captain Burton in deep concentration as he read a data-tablet. “Sir, your lunch.” The Petty Officer said, grabbing his attention.

Burton looked up, almost in a startled way that he had been pulled from the depths of his work. Suddenly, he realised that Lawson couldn’t place the tray down for him as the table was littered with several other data-tablets. He quickly piled them all up neatly, giving room for her to place the tray down in front of him. “I have said before Montana that I can easily come to you to get my lunch.”

“You’re working hard sir, it’s the least I can do.” Challenger’s Chef said as she put the tray down and emptied it of its contents which included a plate, a set of cutlery wrapped up in a serviette and a glass of water.

Montana Lawson was of average height with a slim build which she carried with a positive attitude towards her work. Rarely did she ever not have a smile on her face. Her friendly, bubbly manner made her extremely approachable and she was always happy to help out. Her wavy light brown hair was almost the same colour as her eyes. When she wasn’t cooking or preparing food, she had let her curly hair hang down past her shoulders, but at the moment it was all tied up into a tight bun. She was from Louisiana in the United States, with a mother who was a famous country-western singer and a father who was the state’s governor, she came to her work with a balanced view on most things.  

“Thank you.” Burton replied sincerely. “And I’m sorry that most of your stewards have been reassigned to helping out with preparing cargo bay one.”

She shook her head once. “It’s perfectly fine sir, you don’t need to apologise.” 

Burton just smiled at her before looking down at what she had prepared for him. His stomach growled lightly the moment his eyes fixed on the plate. On it sat a chicken and bacon Caesar salad. “It looks perfect, thanks.” He remarked, sounding a bit deflated in his tone.

“Are you sure that’s all you want sir? I could always add a jacket potato if you want?” She offered.

Burton placed his hands up, “No this is fine, thank you.”

“Well bon appétit sir.” She said trying to make him happy after picking up on how the captain wasn’t his usual cheery self. There is something definitely bothering him. Before she gave him a chance to tuck into his food she quickly spoke up. “Sir, permission to speak freely?”

The captain just nodded after picking up his fork and placing it back down.

“Sir, I hope you don’t feel I’m being out of line with what I’m about to say and I want you to know I hold you in the highest of respect but this maybe my Louisianan mother coming out of me so I apologise if I come across too direct-”

“Get to your point Montana.” Burton said, interrupting her rambling. 

“Sir, since our launch I have never known you to eat alone, in fact you are always accompanied by Commanders Levesque and Stanton for all three of your meals. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but is everything okay?” She asked carefully, trying not to upset the captain.

Burton answered her with a warm smile, showing his appreciation for caring for them. “I assure you everything is fine,” He partially lied. “Both of them are very busy right now and unfortunately what we are about to undertake with the Andorians means that our normal routine has been interrupted.” It wasn’t the complete truth. He was still distancing himself from them as he felt that they needed to understand he hadn’t appreciated the way they had gone about formally objecting to his decision, even though Admiral Gardner had reluctantly agreed to it after Prime Minister Samuels insisted that they help their Andorian allies (Gardner also wanted Burton to ensure they avoided a war at all costs). 

“I understand that sir.” Lawson stated. “It’s just that many of the crew talk to me, I’m not too sure why as I’m not a counsellor, and they all say the same thing. They really do like how you three are close. It gives them confidence that being assigned to Challenger isn’t one of isolation and that this crew will evolve into an almost family unit.”

Burton liked what he was hearing. “Thank you Montana, I can tell you now that was Captain Karim’s vision when she took me on and it’s something I’ve tried to emulate since taking over from her.”

“As someone who has served with her, I can honestly say sir that she would be proud of your efforts.” Lawson said. “Your leadership styles are similar and you’re a very open and caring person, those are traits that the crew adore in you sir.”

Burton blushed at that last comment.

“Anyway, I’m sorry for taking up your time captain, please enjoy your meal and I will leave you in peace, though let me know if there is anything else you need.” Lawson said before leaving the captain alone as she had promised.

Before tucking into his food, Lloyd stared out at the view of the stars warping past the window as he considered what his head cook had just said to him.

In between mouthfuls of eating her pasta, Martha Habiba watched from where she sat in the mess hall to see Chef Lawson leave the captain’s private dining hall and head towards her galley. She pondered as to why Lawson had been in there for a long time, especially as she had only just entered in there with one tray. Deciding not to think about it anymore she turned to look at her friend Sakura who was in deep concentration of what she was reading on a tablet that rested on the table. “So, what are you reading?” Habiba enquired before taking another bite of her lunch.

Masuko paused her reading and looked up. “Commander Stanton wanted me to update myself on Andorian technology.”

“Anything interesting?” The science officer asked the engineer.  

Digging into her plate of salad with her fork, Masuko nodded. “It’s interesting to see how similar newer Andorian technology is to Vulcan technology.”

That caught Habiba’s attention, “Really?” she remarked.

“Yes, see?” Masuko said as she turned the tablet round for Habiba to see. “I’m not surprised though. As being bitter enemies for some time now it was inevitable that they would steal each other’s technological breakthroughs and copy them for their own good.” 

Habiba inclined her head slightly, “So I suppose we should thank the Vulcans for not giving us any technology and making us do all the research ourselves, that way we can only blame ourselves if it goes wrong!”

Chuckling at her friend’s comment, Masuko covered her mouth. “That’s one way of looking at it.” She said after swallowing what she had been eating. 

Approaching them, both with trays in their hands was Ensign Stewart with Private Jenkins in tow. “Hey, do you mind if we join you?” spoke Stewart.

Habiba motioned for them to take the empty seats around the table. “Please do.” She said and watched the two men sit down and sort out their cutlery before tucking into their meals too. “So is our new trauma ward ready?” She asked them.

Being the ship’s nursing officer (and de-facto deputy medical officer), Stewart answered the question even though Jenkins had been one of the many MACOs helping out. “It’s almost done.” He said before pulling out a handheld data tablet and placing it on the table besides his tray.

“Looks like you’ve got some interesting reading to do like me.” Masuko stated looking at what Stewart had just put out.

Sighing, Stewart nodded. “Yeah I’ve got to read up on Andorian anatomy.”

“Ouch.” Masuko answered.  

“I still have to read up on Andorian medical practices,” Stewart added, “all before tomorrow morning, I can see it being a long night for me.”

“Don’t worry Niall, I’ll help you.” Jenkins replied as he grabbed his partner’s hand in to his.

“Thanks Li.” Stewart returned with an affectionate smile.

“You two are just too adorable.” Habiba said, breaking the romantic moment which followed with Masuko chuckling at the science officer’s remark. 

“Thanks Martha.” Stewart replied, pleased that his friends were happy for him and Jenkins. 

“Oh, good god are you both being mushy over food?” Came the familiar voice of Crewmember Harris as he approached the table and sat down at the vacant seat next to Habiba without asking. 

“You’re just jealous Jamie.” Habiba remarked in defence of the couple that sat opposite to Harris.

“How do you work that one out Martha?” Harris asked as he also sorted his cutlery out before digging into the same pasta dish that Masuko had in front of her.

“He’s probably jealous that Niall picked a younger, better looking person than him!” Jenkins quickly joked back with. 

Harris gave out a small fake laugh. “I promise you Liam, there is no bad blood between us because you were picked.”

“So then why are you against them being all romantic with each other?” Masuko asked, pressurising the yeoman to answer the original question.

Before he could answer, Habiba added her idea into the conversation: “Maybe he’s more jealous of the fact he doesn’t have someone to be romantic with?” She hypothesised. 

Still laughing at his friends’ remarks, Harris spoke up in his defence. “Martha I’ve told you before, all you have to do is say the word I would gladly take you out on a date!”

Martha shook her head in disbelief at how big Harris’ ego was. “Earth is more likely to make an alliance with the Klingon Empire than you and I go out on a date.” She replied with.

“Give or take two hundred years I reckon that’s possible.” Harris fired back with. “I’m willing to wait if you-”

Harris was quickly interrupted when the lights in the room dimmed and the calm voice of Sub Commander T’Plau followed over the intercom. “Tactical alert, all hands report to your stations. Captain Burton to the bridge.”

The young officers all gave out a silent sigh as they stood up, pushing their chairs out and quickly made their way towards the main entrance of the mess hall. As Habiba followed the others out she noticed that Harris had made his way over to where the captain had appeared from his dining area alone. She quickly saw the expression on Burton’s face and it was one of extreme concern. Butterflies suddenly appeared in her stomach as she hoped they weren’t about to go into battle again.

In the past few days Sub Commander T’Plau had found herself often being left in command on the bridge by Captain Burton. She did find the captain’s decision to be complementary to his view on her ability to lead in his (and the other most senior members of staff’s) absence. She found herself once again sitting in the centre chair while the captain was having his lunch and Commanders Levesque and Stanton were preparing the ship for what awaited them at Docana. During these moments she found the bridge to be quieter and a lot easier to manage as the crew were highly focussed on their jobs. While sitting in the captain’s chair she used the time to review the latest diagnostics the crew had undertaken on the ship’s weapons and defence systems. She was almost finished reading the report when Ensign Hennessey spoke up.

“Ma’am we’re being hailed by the Andorian flagship, they’re planning to drop to impulse and respond to a distress call from some freighters.”

“Thank you Ensign Hennessey, inform the other Starfleet ships too,” T’Plau said as she sat up straighter in the chair. “Ensign Conrad follow the Andorians.”

“Yes ma’am.” Conrad said at the helm.

She then hit the ship-wide intercom button, “Tactical alert, all hands report to your stations. Captain Burton to the bridge.” She commanded. The bridge darkened within a second of her giving the orders and the ship began preparing for what awaited them. T’Plau moved herself back to the armoury station by the time Captain Burton and the rest of the senior staff had reported to the bridge.

“What’s going on, Sub Commander?” Burton questioned within a nanosecond of him leaving the lift.

She looked over to her commanding officer, “The Andorians are responding to a distress call from a flotilla of freighters, we’re following them in.”

Burton sat quickly in his chair and automatically appeared in command of the situation. “Understood.” He said as he observed Conrad bring the ship out of warp and into sub-light speeds.

T’Plau began scanning for the freighters and automatically found them waiting for them. She counted four ships, all slowly moving at low speeds. Her initial scans indicated they were all damaged and the lead ship was the one transmitting the distress call. 

“Looks like they took quite a beating.” Levesque remarked as she looked up from the scope. “They’re all Andorian freighters and I’m detecting a number of scorch marks along their hulls and breaches.” She added.

T’Plau found Levesque’s analysis and description crude, however she did not allow it to distract herself from trying to determine the attackers. She ran the scan twice before reporting her findings to the captain. “Sir scans indicate that there is more than one attacker responsible here.” She mentioned it after looking up at him.

Burton turned in his chair, concerned covering his expression. “More than one attacker? Who?” He asked as he stood up to join her over by the station to see the readouts.

Before he arrived, she brought up the results on her main monitor. “I am detecting Malurian and Nausicaan disruptor fire energy signatures.” T’Plau shared as the captain looked down at her data. 

“We may have just found out who attacked the colony.” Conrad remarked from the helm.

“Possibly.” T’Plau said as she raised an eyebrow at the pilot’s deductive thought. 

Stanton, who was sitting at the engineering station beside her, spoke up now. “I didn’t think the Malurians and Nausicaans were allies?”

“They are not.” T’Plau stated. “That is their governments have not signed a formal alliance treaty, however a number of Malurians and Nausicaans are engaged in criminal activity, including being mercenaries for hire.”

Burton had returned to his chair as he listened to what everyone was saying. “Are you saying someone has hired them to attack the Andorians?”

“It is a possibility both of their economies survive on black market operations, however there is the chance that those that attacked the freighters are just pirates looking to steal their cargo.” T’Plau countered back with.

Hennessey cleared his throat as he pressed his finger against his earpiece, “Sir,” He said, “The flagship is reporting that there are refugees on the freighters who were fleeing Docana. The freighter captains are reporting they were attacked by Malurian and Nausicaan ships as they fled Docana.” 

T’Plau kept her eyebrows high as she considered the evidence before her. She found it perplexing why the Malurians and Nausicaans would join forces to attack the Andorians. There was definitely something more here to what they were seeing before them.

Hennessey continued reporting in. “The flagship states they are keeping two ships here to help the freighters while we resume our course to Docana. All ships are ordered to sustain warp four point five for the duration of the journey.”

Captain Burton didn’t appear happy with what was transpiring. “Confirm with the Andorians we shall be heading out with them again.”

T’Plau began bringing up all tactical data Challenger had on Malurian and Nausicaan ships. If they were to engage them then she wanted to know what they were facing before it happened.

Stirring slowly, Liam Jenkins reached out to his left side and was surprised to find nothing lying next to him in bed. He blinked several times to wake himself up and soon reminded himself that he was in his quarters that he now shared with his partner Niall Stewart. Sluggishly, he pushed himself up to find out where his boyfriend was. They had fallen asleep together reading through the Andorian anatomy guide that Ro-fa Ben-Ami had given them to study. 

“Niall?” He called out in a sleepy tone as he rubbed his eyes; slowly they reacted to the almost dark room, only a few low beam lights were on. He looked around the room trying to find his boyfriend, but it wasn’t until Jenkins faintly heard the running of the shower behind the door of the bathroom did Jenkins work out where he’s boyfriend was. Once he knew where he was and was okay, he slumped backwards, his head falling back on to the pillow like a lead balloon. Eventually he leant over to see what the time was on the digital clock that sat on the edge of their bedside cabinet. It was four minutes to six o’clock. He groaned inwards; he knew that he would have to get up soon to prepare for his duty just like everyone else that was on alpha shift duty today. The captain had ordered for the alpha shift to come on early today, giving everyone an extra two hours on duty but it would mean they would be ready for when they arrived at the Andorian colony. 

The door to the bathroom slid open and Jenkins looked over to see his other half standing there with nothing on except for just a towel hanging from his waist. “Morning.” Jenkins said, looking at him in a deep groggy morning voice.

“Hey,” Stewart said back in a quieter but quite gruff tone with his slight Irish accent coming through. “I didn’t wake you, did I?” He asked with a concern in his voice as he made his way over to the lockers that contained their hanging uniforms.

Jenkins shook his head while he kept his head on the pillow. “No, it was just when I realised I was no longer asleep on you and all that I had left to hug was a pillow I realised you were up.” He mumbled into the pillow. “How come you’re up so early?”

The ship’s nurse had finished drying himself and was now putting on his underwear followed by his undershirt. “I’ve got to finish off making sure the recovery ward is ready for when we arrive at Docana. With all the work we did yesterday in sorting out cargo bay one we ran out of time to do a stock check there. I promised the good Ro-fa I would meet with her for an early breakfast and help her do it.”

Smiling at how committed his boyfriend was to his job; Jenkins sat up on his elbows. “You should have said last night; I would have come and helped you with it.”

“It’s fine, really.” Stewart replied with a sweet genuine smile as he pulled his uniform jumpsuit out of the locker. “Plus, I know you’ve got another round of training with First Lieutenant al-Fayyad before we arrive, I wanted you to sleep in and rest before today started.”

“You are too good for me!” Jenkins said as he laid himself back on the double bed by placing his hands behind his head and resting on them.  He meant what he said. They had only moved in together three days ago, something that Jenkins took great delight in after Commander Levesque had agreed to it. No longer did he have to share his quarters with three other junior ranked non-commissioned officers from the MACO detachment in a tight room. Instead he got the delights of sharing in Stewart’s junior officer size quarters. The room was big enough for them both to fit in and move around without bumping into each other. The quarters themselves were on E Deck, close to sickbay and backed onto Ensign Conrad’s room. Many of their friends had said they were rushing into things, but as Commander Levesque had said to them both, she wouldn’t stand in the way of true love and gave her blessing.  

Stewart sat on the edge of the bed as he zipped his jumpsuit up and straightened out his sleeves. “I know I’m too good for you, but you are too good for me as well.” He said after and leant over Jenkins and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. “Now enough with cheesiness this morning and go back to sleep for another half hour, I’ll see you for dinner tonight.”

Jenkins sighed after the kiss and placed his hands around Stewart’s neck to hold on to him. “Okay but call me if you need help in sickbay.”

“I will.” Stewart said and kissed him one more time before slowly pulling off Jenkins’ interlocked fingers around his neck. “I gotta go.” He whispered after kissing him for the final time. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Jenkins said, smiling as he watched Stewart stand up. He truly did love him, they had an instant attraction for each other, even with having the four-year age gap (Stewart being twenty-six years old), the two of them had a similar sense of humour and both enjoyed sharing their passion with each other in sports and music. It was perfect, nothing could pull them apart, Jenkins thought to himself as he slowly closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

The warmth of the body next to him made Ensign John Conrad smile in his sleep as he tightened his grasp around the female’s body.

“Mmm, Jack we need to get up.” She said softly in return.

“Not for another fifteen minutes or so.” He mumbled in response. 

“Yeah but I need to get back to my quarters to get changed and have a shower.” She slowly countered back as she slowly pushed his embrace off from her.

“Do it all here.” He said, still remaining where he was, making her task difficult to undertake.

“I can’t, and you know we don’t want to get caught by anyone.”

“But Martha-” He started to whine but was stopped mid-flow by a passionate kiss from Challenger’s second science officer. 

Conrad smiled into the kiss, only a few weeks into his new posting and he found someone to share the joy of it all with however neither of them had spoken about what their relationship was. They weren’t dating each other; they were just there for each other when they needed it. Ensign Martha Habiba was a beautiful and clever woman that he found completely attractive and fascinating to know. She had a beautiful smile which was complimented by her laugh and sense of humour. The two of them had spent one night talking about lots of things and slowly getting very drunk in the crew lounge before engaging in a night of passionate love making. Since then every so often they would meet up when they could. They had made a pact, after the captain had announced Challenger’s new orders to help the Andorians; they would spend the night together before the ship arrived at Docana. 

Eventually Habiba got out of his firm grasp and creped over to find her clothing on the floor. Quickly she put it all on and leant into Conrad, she kissed his cheek as he remained lying on the bed. “Thanks for last night.” She whispered into his ear afterwards and quietly she made her way out of his quarters.

Habiba was doing her best to be quiet so she could return to her quarters on D deck without being caught, she had decided that by going early she wouldn’t bump into many people and would be out of Conrad’s quarters before anyone else on E deck had seen her. However, her luck ran out the moment she turned the corridor and automatically bumped into her friend, Ensign Niall Stewart, leaving his quarters.

“Martha, what are you doing down here?” He quietly asked surprised at his friend’s presence this early in the morning, especially on E deck when her quarters were above them.

She couldn’t think of an excuse to reply quickly with. To fill the silence she just said, “Umm.”

Stewart looked at the direction she had come from, then back her and noticed the blush forming on her cheeks. He just smiled at her when he connected the dots in his mind and inferred why she was down on E deck. “Your secret is safe with me.” He said to her in a low voice, giving her a cheeky wink.

“Please Niall; I don’t want anyone to know about this.” She remarked sincerely, holding on to his hand as she pleaded. “Don’t tell anyone, even Liam!”

“I promise.” He said, gesturing to draw a cross over his heart with his free right hand.

“Thanks.” She replied gratefully and made her way to her quarters on D deck swiftly. 

Stewart watched as Habiba made her rapid exit before making his way to sickbay to meet with Challenger’s Chief Medical Officer.

Michael Stanton hated waiting. He hated journeys that were long and uneventful along the way. For this he had not slept well and found himself waking up a lot earlier then had planned. He now stood in his quarters just in his underwear with a mug of hot tea that he had just made staring out the stars as they streaked past Challenger and the rest of the Andorian-Human task force. From his quarters he could see the NV­-class ship, the Apollo, keeping up with everyone else.  He missed serving on the smaller Starfleet ships, the intimate atmosphere that it created, the hum of the power systems was completely different to how it was on the NX-classes. He had shared his thoughts on this with everyone else on the senior staff, especially as most of them had served on smaller crafts before joining Challenger with many of them agreeing with his thoughts on it. He took a sip of his tea. A year ago, if someone had said to him, he would be Chief Engineer and Second Officer of one of the most powerful ships in Starfleet he would have laughed them off, he would think they would also be delusional if they also said he would become an avid tea drinker. He blamed Captain Burton and Commander Levesque for that. The two of them were keen tea drinkers and had got him hooked on it compared to the amount of coffee he used to drink.

Sighing after taking another sip he finished the mug’s contents and walked over to his small desk and placed the mug down. Automatically he saw the photograph of Alex and him when they had spent New Year’s Eve in Times Square in New York the previous year. They were both smiling and enjoying the celebrations around them. He smiled to himself after picking it up and looking at it in more detail. He had received a message from his partner only a few days ago, explaining that Discovery, which was a month behind its launch date, was now closer to being completed and sent out to join them in the deep end of space. Stanton had wondered what it had meant for their relationship, would they still be together, or would they call it a day? Could they keep a relationship going while they served on separate ships far away from each other? 

Deciding not to ponder any more on his worries about his relationship with Discovery’s chief pilot, he decided he must worry about what lay ahead of them: Docana and finding out what had happened to the Andorian colony. They were only a few hours away now and they would soon discover the status of the planet and its occupants. He had been up all night thinking to himself had he checked every system and prepared everything. He put the picture frame down and made his way towards his private bathroom, deciding to take his worries to the shower and hopefully find a way to rinse them away.

The decision to have alpha shift come on early appeared to be a good idea at the time nevertheless Captain Burton was starting to regret it as he suppressed another yawn and covered his mouth while he stood at the main station in the forward port armoury room. He was reviewing Sub Commander T’Plau’s suggested tactics on how to engage Nausicaan raiders and Malurian ships. Her strategies were inventive enough and made Burton pleased he had the Vulcan exchange officer with him. 

“Am I intruding sir?” A female voice said behind him.

Burton had not even heard the doors open or close so was a bit surprised when a voice appeared from nowhere. He looked over his left shoulder to see the woman whose work he was currently reading over. “Sub Commander, good morning.” He greeted her before looking back at the screen. “And no, you’re not.” He added.

She walked past the high stack of photonic and spatial torpedoes and joined the captain on the raised platform. “Are you satisfied with my plans of engagement?”

“Extremely satisfied T’Plau.” He said with a sincere smile. “I was thinking about how glad I am that you are with us.”

“I am pleased that my presence is useful, captain.” She returned humbly.

Burton stopped working and turned to look at the Vulcan beside him; she noticed his pause and copied his actions. “Have Major Yu and you thought about what we’ll need to do if we have to send anyone down to the colony?”

She nodded. “The Major would like to send a large contingent, if not all, of the MACOs to the planet-side to ensure high security and safety for any of our officers. My armoury department will cover the ship’s security.”

“Okay, just make sure we’re ready to go the moment the Andorians give us the word.” Burton responded before looking back at the screen.

For several minutes the two of them said nothing until T’Plau broke the silence. “Captain, may I ask you a personal question?”

Burton stopped working and looked at T’Plau. “Sure.”

“Have you ever actually been in a ground combat situation?” She asked bluntly. 

Burton nodded, “Several in fact, in particular in my early days on the Intrepid-”

T’Plau interrupted him. “I am sorry sir, I meant during a war.”

“Then no.” He honestly answered. “Earth hasn’t been at war or involved in a major conflict since the Xindi crisis two years ago.”

T’Plau placed her hands behind her back. “I have. The border skirmishes between my world and Andoria as well as several conflicts on other worlds.”

“Your point Sub Commander?” Burton inquired as he started to become restless with her line of questioning.

T’Plau had by instinct picked up on the captain’s annoyance of not getting to her point. Automatically she shared her thoughts. “I was going to say sir have you prepared yourself for the possibility of losing some of the crew in this upcoming task?”

Burton stepped back the moment she finished, a bit surprised by her bluntness and cold approach to the possibility of them losing anyone. Regaining his strong posture, the young captain replied. “I’m hoping Sub Commander that we don’t have to deal with that, but if and when we do then I’ll be ready. I can assure you of that.” He replied just as honestly as she had asked. “What’s your point anyway?” He asked after a brief second of silence between them.

“We shall most likely be involved in the event that leads to the Andorians declaring war, as such I wanted to know if you’ve prepared yourself for that sir. If not, I would be content to share with you my own experience of such events and what I learnt from them.”

Burton smiled at the twisted approach T’Plau had taken to show she cared about him. “I appreciate the sentiment T’Plau.” He returned. “Let’s see what the future holds for us before we start to drape flags over coffins.”

“I understand sir.” T’Plau said, bowing her head in respect. “My apologies if my line of questioning upset you sir in anyway, that was not my intention.”

Burton returned to his work. “Don’t worry, Sub Commander.” He concluded as he read the next part of his work in silence.

Secondmoon, Fesoan Lor’veln Year 463

Thursday, April 24th, 2155

Lor’den, Docana

Thomsher ch’Flene pulled on his uniform’s jacket collar one more time as he walked out of his apartment building and down the plaza towards where he worked at the Imperial Guard outpost. Being extremely young and only recently finishing his training on the homeworld, he found his first assignment to be trouble-free. Holding the position of a junior lieutenant within the communications department, he had accepted the posting as he thought that being placed on one of the Empire’s frontline worlds that he would be engaging with races from various worlds where he would be able to use his talented array of linguistic expertise. However, he was surely mistaken. His main duty was overseeing the upkeep of the colony’s communication network. He walked down the plaza of Lor’den, the capital settlement of the Docana colony he pondered to himself just how long he would be in this position. He couldn’t complain about the location of his posting, Docana was a beautiful world and currently Lor’den was experiencing its spring season. The early morning sun blissfully shone down on the settlement as its inhabitants began their day and Thomsher walked past a number of civilians, some of them engrossed with their own business while only a few others smiled at him when he smiled at them first. 

“Thomy!” A voice screamed from the other side of the town square.

Inside he groaned to himself as his friend, Lieutenant Scoranthien th’Redash, ran over to him and joined him. Thomsher hated the nick name that Scoranthien had given him since their posting on Docana, most of his family and friends called him Thom for short but Scoranthien had added the ‘y’, as such Thom had called him Scory back even though he was referred to as Scor. 

As Scor joined him he put his arm around Thom’s shoulders. “So, news has it that General Ghelev is bringing the Avenkerev to Docana.”

Thom was perplexed at his friend’s comment; the news of one of the Guard’s advanced ship’s visiting the colony was nothing special he felt. “And?”

“Well she’s doing a tour of the outpost and if we impress her then she may want us on her ship.” He explained in an excited tone.

Sighing once, Thom looked at his friend. “You may be thinking a bit too much in to this Scor.”

“We’ll see.” Scor said as they made way their way towards the main entrance of the outpost.

Almost two hours later both friends were working at their stations within the command centre when an alarm went off. Their superior officer, Commander Ashanthi zh’Becthor, walked out of her office the moment it started. “What’s going on?” she asked.

Scor had announced the colony’s sensor network was detecting a number of Malurian and Nausicaan ships entering the system. Before Thom had a chance to follow out his orders to hail them the base was hit hard as a nuclear detonation was set off.

Two days later

Lieutenant Thomsher ch’Flene hadn’t expected to rise through the ranks so quickly, no longer was he just a junior communication officer, but he was Commander Anthi’s right hand man now. After the attack on the colony the base had been almost destroyed and its staff all, but a few were left dead. Before they abandoned the base, Thom had been able to send out a distress call to the homeworld. If anyone had received it, the survivors would never know as they were now doing their best to endure in the worst conditions ever. After the Malurians had attacked the colony with thermo-nuclear warheads, they had wiped out almost two-thirds of the four settlements that made up the Andorian world. Many colonists were left dead or dying. Those that had survived from Lor’den had been able to evacuate out of the ruined town and were now refugees living in the caves of a nearby range of mountains. The mountains were deep within woodland areas and were filled with an un-categorised metallic alloy that disrupted sensors. It was a perfect hideaway for the state they were in.

Thom, no longer wearing his uniform but civilian clothing in case he was captured, walked through the almost darkened tunnels to the main area where most of the survivors had settled in. Commander Anthi stood in the centre talking to a group, as she saw him, she nodded to them that their conversation was over and looked back at him. “Report lieutenant?” She said after indicating they should walk away from her location and towards the private make-shift room she had put together in the corner of the cavern with a couple of blankets. It acted as her own private office and room.

“One of our recon teams report that Malurian troops are rounding up any surviving colonists and placing them into makeshift camps in Lor’den.” He stated as he took a seat on her bunk bed after she did the same thing and offered him a seat next to her.

She wiped her eyes with the back of her right hand. “Do we know what they’re after?”

He nodded. “One of the Malurian ships has landed on the outskirts of Lor’den and has been spotted offloading mining equipment. My feeling is that they are after the gallicite.”

Anthi nodded in agreement with the lieutenant’s assessment. Docana had a generous amount of gallicite within the planet’s crusts which would be used to build warp coils. It was one of the reasons the colony was established, it was to become one of the Empire’s main mining communities, but they had yet to set up the mines. “What doesn’t make sense though is why the Malurians and Nausicaans are working together on this?” She asked out loud.

“Well none of them are wearing uniforms so they can’t be part of their actual militaries which might mean they’re mercenaries.” Thom theorised. “But what doesn’t make sense with that is if they are mercenaries then they’ve got a lot of guts to attack an Andorian colony to set up a mining station here. How do they plan to hold the planet? Surely they can’t fund that!”

“Maybe they are working together to mine the gallicite, but as you said there’s no way they could fund that themselves as privateers. They must have a wealthy benefactor. Once the rest of the Empire knows what’s happened here, they will strike back.” Anthi said confidently. After she had finished talking there was a brief silence between them as they considered what was going on to their world, in between that time they could hear the refugees outside all moving around, quietly talking within small huddles. 

“We need to collect more intelligence on the size of the occupational force and if possible, get our hands on a communication’s device so we can get in touch with the Imperial Guard.” Thom recommended after standing up and looking at the people outside, all of them with the look of defeat on their expressions. “We could also see if any of the satellites we put into orbit last week are still operational.”

The commander nodded in agreement with Thom’s plan. “We’ll also need to get more food and medicine if we’re to survive this, as well as weapons so we can put together an effective resistance.” Anthi added. “I’m not prepared to live the rest of my life in a cave, waiting for someone to rescue us. When the Imperial Guard does turn up then we need to be ready to help them out.”

Thom leant down to pick up the disruptor gun that was sitting on the floor by the foot of the bed. “Then let’s give our new guests something to think about before we send them packing!” He said with fierce determination in his eyes to his superior officer.

Anthi was taking back, she had not seen this side of her former junior communication officer but as the only survivor of her staff he had changed. She felt it was a good change but she knew from experience that war and death changed people, she only hoped that Thom’s new found sense of confidence was one that wouldn’t make him too arrogant that he misses the bigger picture: the fight to take back Docana and find out why they were attacked in the first place. She couldn’t do all of that if he was dead, she needed his strength and she knew that everyone that was with them needed a new sense of hope and a purpose to continue living. Without them they would fail with what challenges the fates would send them.

Saturday, April 26th, 2155

Challenger NX-03

A heavy silence filled Challenger’s bridge. Everyone was silent as the ship dropped out of warp and with a touch of a button on T’Plau’s station the ship entered tactical alert. Ahead of the Challenger was the rest of the Andorian task force while the Intrepid and Apollo flanked either side of the NX-class ship.  The Earth ships all came to a gradual halt while the Andorian ships pressed on into the Docana system.

“Reading all stop, sir.” Ensign Conrad announced as he looked up from the helm.

Captain Burton had been sitting on the edge of his seat as the ship made its final leg of its journey to Docana, the instant Conrad spoke he sat back but further straighter in it. “Full sensor sweeps everyone; I want to know what’s out there.” He commanded before glancing over to his First Officer. “Commander, co-ordinate our scans with the science officers on the Intrepid and Apollo, I don’t want to miss a thing.”

“Aye captain.” Levesque replied as she quickly got on with carrying out his orders.

Burton remained poised, looking at the ship’s main screen at the image of the empty star field. There was a beep to his right; naturally he swung his chair round to face his Armoury Officer knowing she had something to report. “What is it, Sub Commander?” He asked.

“I am detecting a joint Malurian-Nausicaan armada in the system. Four Malurian cruisers and eight Nausicaan raiders, apart from one Malurian ship, are in orbit of Docana.” The Vulcan combat officer shared.

“Twelve ships?” Commander Stanton queried in disbelief from the engineering station by T’Plau’s side. “Do they really think they could keep the system from the Andorian Imperial Guard with that number?”

“Obviously not, however they may have settled a heavily fortified beachhead on the colony that may make it difficult for the Andorians to re-take.” T’Plau conjectured.

“Well they’re about to lose their hold of the system from up here.” Conrad stated. “The Andorians are moving in at high impulse and are heading straight for the Malurian-Nausicaan ships in orbit.”

“Tactical display on screen.” Burton quickly ordered.

T’Plau pulled up her sensor readings to show the location of all the ships in the system against a map of the six-planet star system. Docana was the third planet from its sun and between their current position and the planet laid an asteroid belt. General Ghelev, the Andorian flag officer leading the battle group, had decided that the Starfleet ships would remain on the edge of the system while her forces engaged with the aggressors.  Once the threat was dealt with Burton’s ship would move in to help out with relief efforts. 

“Sir, something isn’t right here.” Levesque said a second later, her eyes were squinting at the primary monitor at her station. “The lone Malurian ship is up to something.”

Turning in her direction before standing up, Burton looked at her. “Explain Nicole.” He said wanting to know what was going on.

She quickly focussed the main screen onto the lone ship, zooming in on its location and plotting a flight path behind it and in front of it. “Based on its trajectory and the ion wake that it’s left behind from its engines sir, I believe that ship has just come out of the asteroid belt.” She tapped on her console one more time and now brought up a visual of the ship as it sped away towards its allies. She tightened in the image further on its dorsal section. “That’s a launch bay sir, and look its doors are slowly closing, I’m also detecting numerous small amounts of boridium coming from across the belt as well as low level gamma rays.”

The tactical mind inside Burton started to sound alarms, something wasn’t right here. Boridum was used primarily in power cells and gamma rays could come from most things, what could be creating those readings? 

“Turn our attention to the belt, quickly before the Andorians enter it.” Burton ordered.

Levesque did as she was told and began scanning the belt.

While she worked Burton looked at his communications officer. “Ensign share with General Ghelev what we’ve detected and advise her she may want to pull back and awai-” The main screen lit up like a firework display as it registered numerous explosions from the asteroid belt interrupting the captain in mid-sentence. Everyone watched in disbelief as the Andorian ships were pummelled from the explosions from all sides.

“Sir I’m receiving numerous distress calls from the Andorian ships.” Hennessey stated with one finger on his earpiece and the other sorting through the communication traffic now coming in. “We’re being hailed by the flagship, General Ghelev is urgently requesting to talk to you captain.”

“Put it up.” Burton ordered frantically as he observed the chaos that was happening before them.

Once again, the main screen changed, this time the image of an Andorian woman wearing the uniform of an Imperial Guard flag officer appeared. General Thraghelev zh’Zulis was an older woman who, from what Captain Burton had been briefed about from Sub Commander T’Plau, was one of the Guard’s highly recognised and celebrated officers. She was also a close friend and advisor to Chancellor Margerit. Ghelev appeared with numerous cuts along her face and surrounded by her bridge falling apart in flames. “Captain Burton!” She shouted over the pandemonium. “We’ve been hit by a minefield; we’re attempting to fall back to your position as almost all of our ships have been heavily damaged. Please Captain; will you get a message to Andoria about this?”

“We will, General.” Burton said before nodding to Hennessey to send the message to Andoria about what had happened. “We’ll move in to assist you.”

“No!” Ghelev shouted. “The Avenkerev has taken heavy damage, we’re attempting to prevent our warp core from breaching, however I don’t think-” She interrupted by an explosion from behind her as more flames and smoke engulfed her bridge. “We don’t have time Captain. I’m transmitting to you and the rest of the fleet my new orders. Captain Lloyd Burton I hereby give you the battlefield commission of Commander as an honouree member of the Andorian Imperial Guard and order you to take command of what’s left of our fleet. Please Captain ensure that Docan is sav-” The signal was cut and the image of the damaged Andorian fleet appeared on the screen.

Burton panicked, “Get her back Ensign!” He shouted to Hennessey.

Hennessey was already trying to the moment the channel was closed. “I’m trying sir, but they’re not picking up from their end!”

Another explosion erupted on the screen followed by two more. Everyone remained shocked. Burton looked to Levesque for answers. She looked at her screen, double checked her readings then looked solemnly at him and shook her head. “The Avenkerev is gone sir and it took two other Andorian ships with it.”

Burton’s body language deflated at the news as he sat slowly down. About halfway down and Ensign Hennessey spoke up. “Sir we received the General’s communication package and I’ve put them through the translation programme” He looked up from his console to face the captain. “She has sent emergency orders that include your battlefield commission and appointment to the Imperial Guard. She was able to transmit it to every other ship in the Andorian task force too.”

There was a slight pause from everyone as they looked at the captain all in silence, wondering what his orders would be. However, he was not the first to speak up. “I want to say congratulations Captain for the appointment in being the first non-Andorian to join the Imperial Guard however I do not believe the current situation is appropriate as the joint Malurian-Nausicaan armada is moving in this direction.” T’Plau announced from the armoury station. If she hadn’t been a Vulcan, then her tone was almost sarcastic. 

“Orders captain?” Stanton asked.

Burton scratched his chin; he knew he had to act fast. “Inform both of our escorts to join us in providing cover for the retreating Andorian ships and inform the entire fleet to fall back beyond the edge of the system.” He commanded. He then looked over to Hennessey, “Ted, open a channel to the Malurian-Nausicaan ships.”

Hennesey was busy tapping away at his console before nodding to his captain, indicating the channel was open.  “Go ahead sir.” He said.

“This is Captain Lloyd Burton of the Earth starship Challenger to the Malurian-Nausicaan fleet approaching.” He paused as he stood up from his chair and began walking around the front of the bridge towards the main screen. “Well done, you’ve crippled the Andorian task force and proven your point. Now I ask you to break off your pursuit of us. You’ve shown us that you’ve taken Docana and are prepared to defend it, however I promise you that if you plan to attack the rest of the Andorian ships and my vessels it will be a huge mistake on your part. Already your hostile actions against our allies will be dealt with from Andoria but I will assure you that if you fire on my ship then not only will you have the Andorian Imperial Guard to deal with but Starfleet and our other allies in the Coalition of Planets.” He paused, hoping his speech may work. “You will be dragging both your worlds into a war against four larger nations that control a number of systems together. Don’t think we won’t respond with the full military might of them. Now I’m prepared to meet to discuss terms but leave this task force in peace and I promise you we will do the same if you’re prepared to talk.” He nodded once to Hennessey to close the channel and turned around to look at everyone else.

“You think they’ll listen sir?” Conrad asked innocently.

“I hope so.” Burton said as he made his way back to stand behind his pilot.

“They have sir, but not in the way you want them to.” T’Plau shared as she brought the tactical display back up on the main screen to show the enemy’s movement. “They are retreating back to their position around Docana and I’m detecting three Nausicaan raiders breaking formation to replenish the mines into the asteroid field. They are fortifying their position.” With the image before, Captain Burton sighed in disbelief. 

They truly were in the thick of it.

Saturday, April 26th, 2155

Manoir de Christofle, Place de la Concorde, Paris, France, Earth

“Okay everyone let’s calm down and get down to business.” Prime Minister Samuels instructed as he entered the situation room with his staff entourage and made his way towards the top end of the table. After he entered the guards at the door came to attention and announced his arrival with a “GARDE-À-VOUS”, the French equivalent of shouting “TEN-HUT”. The entire room stopped its commotion mid-track and turned to look in the one direction of the main entrance to see Earth’s head of government appear. As Samuels approached the top end of the long glass rectangular table that sat in the middle of the room, he was greeted by the presence of Fleet Admiral Hathaway and Rear Admiral Gardner. “Admirals, thank you for coming.” He said, extending his hand to shake them both. 

“Good afternoon Mister Prime Minister.” Hathaway returned with Gardner giving a similar expression as they all shook hands. 

“Now tell me what’s happened.” Samuels demanded as he took his usual seat at the top end of the table while gesturing for everyone else in the room to also sit down and carry on with their work. 

Hathaway nodded to Gardner to begin the briefing as fast as possible. Gardner, who remained standing by Hathaway who had taken a seat directly to Samuels’ left, pressed a button on a computer tablet he had in hands and changed the image currently being shown on the largest screen at the other end of the table. “About an hour ago we received a message from Captain Burton informing us that the Andorian relief task force was ambushed by a minefield in the Docana asteroid belt.” The image changed to show the Challenger’s sensor logs of the incident. “Out of the eighteen Andorian ships originally sent, only eleven remain; however they are all severely damaged.”

“My God.” Samuels said in horror at what he was being shown.

“How severely damaged Admiral?” Defence Secretary Stark asked who sat further down the table.

“Those that survived are not combat capable at the moment, our ships are currently defending them while they make repairs.” Gardner answered. “Their crews have also received a number of injuries and casualties. Captain Burton reports that our people are helping out with repairs and the injured to their best abilities.”

Prime Minister Samuels leant forward as he rested his chin on the top of his hands that were now grasped together as his elbows propped them up. “Have we heard from the Andorians at all?” He asked out.

As it came under her area of responsibility, Foreign Secretary Campbell spoke up from where she sat next to Hathaway. “The Chancellor wishes to speak with us in a joint call with Captain Burton.”

“Mister Prime Minister,” Hathaway said, interjecting at this point, “you need to be aware that before the destruction of the Avenkerev, the Andorian flagship leading this task force, its commanding officer General Ghelev gave Captain Burton a battlefield commission in the Imperial Guard of Commander and gave overall command of the remaining Andorian forces to him.”

“What? Why? How?” Samuels stumbled out confused at her statement. He couldn’t understand that statement. A Human leading an Andorian task force? He never expected to hear such a thing in his lifetime. 

“She issued emergency orders to the Andorian task force to fall back and to take orders from Burton. He is now an honorary member of the Imperial Guard.” Hathaway added.

“That’s ridiculous.” Deputy Prime Minister Malik spat out from her seat by Samuels’ right hand side. “Andorians would never take orders from a Human and let alone Captain Burton actually commanding a non-Starfleet task group, surely this conflicts with his Starfleet duties?”

Hathaway turned to the Deputy Prime Minister. “Truthfully, Madam Deputy Prime Minister, there is no Starfleet regulation or protocol in dispute here.”

“How come?” Malik questioned.

Hathaway looked to Gardner and back to the Deputy before answering her. “Because Madam Deputy Prime Minister there has never been a situation like this before, well not properly since Captain Archer pulled that allied fleet together last year to deal with the Romulan Drone ships.”

“Captain Burton also has the Intrepid and Apollo under his command too.” Gardner added.

“You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me?” Secretary Stark exclaimed. “He hasn’t been in command long enough to do such a thing. Surely Captain Ramirez, a more experienced commanding officer, should be leading our forces?”

“Actually, Mister Secretary,” Hathaway said, “Under Starfleet regulations, where a mission involves two or more ships, command authority falls to the captain with the tactical superiority. In this case Captain Burton has said superiority and Captain Ramirez has already shared his contentment in following Captain Burton’s lead with us.”

Stark looked at Samuels, “Nathan this is going to turn into a disaster if we leave Burton in charge out there. The press will have a fill day with us over this for letting someone so inexperienced take charge of our interests! You need to transfer command to Ramirez.”

“I agree.” Malik said, supporting the Defence Secretary. “This is a critical situation and we need someone leading our people with a lot more experience. We are on the tipping point of entering a war footing and to avoid it we need someone who could possibly prevent that. Ramirez is the senior most captain out there, he should know how to handle this.”

At that point both doors to the room opened wide again and walking in was President Littlejohn, the United Earth Commonwealth’s head of state. The president, who was in her late forties and had long shiny black hair, wore an ultramarine blue skirt-suit with a similar coloured blouse. Littlejohn was a tough politician with a strong sense of honour and integrity. She was currently serving her first term as President of the United Earth Commonwealth. Winning a landslide victory against her rivals, she was seen as the most open-minded candidate during the election. Her warm, bold and excitable personality made her well-liked by the public. Working with others across the Commonwealth, she had established an extremely diverse administration compared to her predecessor. As the third person to hold the office of President, she was the first African American (and the second woman) to be the chief executive of the United Earth Government. The United States hadn’t joined the UEG until 2150 and when the elections of 2152 took place the former American Ambassador to the UEG, had announced her candidacy. Prior to that she had government experience in being the Secretary of State as well as serving as a two-term congresswoman, where she had become one of the youngest serving Speakers of the House too. Her charming personality had won her the nomination for the Federalist Democratic Party presidential candidate. Following that her campaign had continued to show how she and her team were the ones to bring positive change in the Commonwealth. She had wanted to bring not only nations closer together but Earth’s colonies too. Pushing for colonies not to feel isolated had been one of her themes, in fact her Vice President nominee had been the Prime Minister of Mars. 

Just like before, the guards at the door came to attention and announced her arrival by shouting “GARDE-À-VOUS”.

Littlejohn, who on occasion, wore glasses walked into the room. She had flown in from her residence in London on board Global-Defence-One (the president’s personal transport operated by Earth’s military). “Please sit down.” Littlejohn instructed after everyone had stood up as a mark of respect for their leader. Samuels had moved into the spare seat to the right where he had sat before at the head of the table. Normally the cabinet would have met in the President’s residence, Greenwich Palace (formally known as the Palace of Hope), however with most of the cabinet having to attend an emergency session of Parliament later that day, the president had insisted they meet in Paris at the Prime Minister’s secondary offices. 

The president took her seat at the head of the table and adjusted her glasses. “Okay, catch me up with what you’ve been discussing so far.”

Samuels, as her prime minister, spoke up. “We’ve been informed, Madam President, that the Andorian task force has been critically damaged from their rescue attempt and their flagship has been destroyed. Before its demise, the Andorian general transferred command of their forces over to Captain Burton on Challenger.”

Nodding as she took in Samuels’ words, she looked up and around to everyone else. “So what’s the problem you were discussing before I came in?”

“We’re not sure if Burton should remain in command of the fleet, he doesn’t have the experience compared to Captain Ramirez on board the Intrepid.” Stated Stark. 

The president looked down the table towards the two Starfleet flag officers. “Fleet Admiral Hathaway, your assessment on Captain Burton’s ability to lead the fleet?”

“I can assure you Madam President that Captain Burton is capable of leading our forces and I have complete faith in him to consult with Captain Ramirez and Captain Proulx of the Apollo before making any major decisions.” Hathaway said in a stern British accent as she looked at the President before staring down at the Defence Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister. If her glare had been lethal, they both would have been killed by it instantly. “By trade he is a tactician first where Ramirez is an engineer.” 

“Madilyn, what do you think?” Samuels piped up after a second. “You worked with Burton recently, what are your thoughts on his ability to lead our forces?”

Campbell cleared her throat. “He’s capable and has a relationship with the Andorian Chancellor which may work to our advantage.” She answered, avoiding the disappointed looks from her fellow members of the cabinet in not agreeing with their judgement of Burton. Stark shook his head in disbelief and Malik just rolled her eyes as she slumped backwards into her chair. She looked up at Littlejohn, “Burton won’t let us down, I agree with Fleet Admiral Hathaway’s assessment.”

“Alright.” Littlejohn said, accepting Campbell’s counsel. She looked to Samuels, “What do we have to do next?”

“We need to talk with Chancellor Margerit and Captain Burton.” The Prime Minister stated. 

Nodding in acceptance of his suggestion the president looked over to Secretary Campbell who then signalled to one of her aides to bring the call up on the larger screen before them. A split screen appeared with the image on the left showing Captain Burton sat on the edge of the table in Challenger’s conference room with Captains Ramirez and Proulx sat either side of him, along with his first officer Commander Levesque too. On the right-hand side of the screen a similar image of Chancellor Margerit stood by a tall table in the centre of what looked like her own version of a situation room back on Andoria.

“Chancellor Margerit, Captains, Commander.” President Littlejohn greeted them with a genuine smile. “This is quite the predicament we find ourselves in.”

“I couldn’t put it better myself ma’am.” Burton replied with confidence. 

“Indeed.” Margerit added before taking lead in their conversation. “Thank you for taking my call Madam President. I wish to discuss the current military situation in Docana and our response to it.”

“Please Madam Chancellor,” Littlejohn said, indicating for her to proceed.

She crossed her arms against her chest. “The Malurian-Nausicaan invasion of Andorian territory must be responded to with swift military action. I don’t plan to allow for the deaths of loyal Andorian soldiers and innocent civilians to go unanswered. I will make them pay for what they have done to my people and the Andorian Empire will have revenge.”

Pausing for a moment, Littlejohn didn’t respond straight away; it was Samuels who did after he twitched slightly in his chair. It was obvious he was feeling uncomfortable at the rage that the Andorian woman was now showing. 

“I understand your feelings over this Madam Chancellor but-” He was stopped by the Andorian woman.

“There are no buts,” Margerit spat back. “Blood has been spilt and Andoria will not rest until every Malurian and Nausicaan at Docana has fallen for their savage assault against us!” At this she thumped her fist hard against the table before her, almost cracking it with her might. “They will be punished, mark my words.”

“Very well.” Samuels said, flinching after she hit the table. 

Littlejohn remained firm in her steadfastness as she took over. “What is your plan Chancellor?” She asked.

Margerit turned her head slightly to appear as if she was looking at Captain Burton from her point of view. “Captain Burton, what is the state of my fleet?”

“They are all secure Madam Chancellor and repairs are fully underway, my chief engineer believes most of the ships will be almost operational within twenty hours.” Burton answered, still remaining calm even after Margerit’s outburst.

“Excellent, and I believe you received General Ghelev’s confirmation orders of your battlefield commission?” Margerit asked next.

“I did.” Burton said after a single nod.

Margerit smiled in appreciation. “General Ghelev knew how highly I thought of you captain. It is also Andorian military protocol that in a catastrophic state where the chain of command is destroyed then command of an Andorian task force falls to the commander with the highest rank and most operational ship. That would be you in this case Captain Burton.” She paused for a moment. “This is truly a momentous occasion for both our races.” She commented.

“Madam Chancellor, are you truly happy with General Ghelev’s orders?” Samuels asked, showing how he was almost finding it difficult to understand the Andorians willingness to let Burton lead their forces.

“I knew Ghelev my entire military career, Mister Prime Minister, I am also tez-zhavey to three of her children and I have always trusted her judgement. She picked Captain Burton to succeed her in proper accordance with our military regulations and as a senior general she has the authority to induct anyone as an honouree member of the Imperial Guard and give them a commission.” Margerit said with pride in her voice. She looked back to Burton now. “As a Commander within the Andorian Imperial Guard, I order you to remove the Malurian and Nausicaan threat from Andorian territory by any means necessary and secure Docana at once.” She said in an authoritative tone.

Samuels now sat up in his chair. “Now come on Chancellor, you know that CAPTAIN Burton’s allegiances are to Earth first, not Andoria.” He said, emphasising on Burton’s Starfleet rank. “You can’t order him to do that. I won’t allow our own ships to engage in combat with the Malurian and Nausicaan ships.”

Burton turned to look at Samuels on his screen. “With all due respect sir, the Andorian Empire is our ally and under the treaty of the Coalition of Planets we are expected to help defend their interests when an aggressor attacks them.”

“May I also remind you, Mister Prime Minister, that the Empire did come to Earth’s aid in its hour of need during the final events of the Xindi conflict?” Margerit added. “You owe us.”

“I didn’t realise we kept a record of our debts?” Secretary Stark responded sarcastically.

At this point in time Secretary Campbell got involved. “They are right Nathan.” She said, stressing her words while she looked at the PM. “If that was one of our colonies, say Vega, which was invaded then we would be screaming out for support from the Vulcans, Tellerites and Andorians because of the Coalition. It’s one of the reasons why we signed up for it so we wouldn’t have to stand alone like we did against the Xindi. It’s the reason why we started the Coalition.”

“She has a point.” Fleet Admiral Hathaway added.

“Earth can’t afford to be involved in another interstellar conflict, particularly with the Romulans and Klingons on our doorstep.” Deputy Prime Minister Malik stated. 

Samuels looked at Littlejohn, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. While they paused, Chancellor Margerit spoke up. “I’m sending an additional fourteen ships to Docana, they will arrive in three days. If Captain Burton is unable to remove the threat or you order him to not to engage then I ask that he and his ships leave Andorian territory and we will deal with the threat ourselves. But believe me when I say the Andorian Empire will secede from the Coalition of Planets and I will recall our Ambassadors from Earth, Vulcan and Tellar.”

Littlejohn looked at Burton. “Captain Burton you heard the Chancellor’s orders, remove the Malurian and Nausicaan threat from Andorian territory by any means necessary and secure Docana at once.” She paused for a second, “But you are under my orders to do so under Starfleet regulations and rules which means a diplomatic attempt must be made first.”

Burton squirmed at that point as everyone else was stunned by Littlejohn’s decision. “Umm, ma’am actually I’ve already tried that. I hailed them on our way out of the system and we’ve attempted twice since then, but we’ve had no response apart from witnessing them re-mining the asteroid field.” He shared. 

“Then remove them from the system with as little loss to life as possible.” Littlejohn ordered.

“Understood sir.” Burton said with a singular nod.

“Thank you, Madam Prime Minister. All of Andoria appreciate your wisdom in this matter and your sign of friendship to us.” Margerit remarked with more kindness in her tone.

Littlejohn ignored Margerit’s comments and looked back at Burton. “Godspeed Commodore Burton.”

At that remark everyone looked at her with confusion, including Burton. “I beg your pardon ma’am?” The Challenger commanding officer asked.

“I may not be a military person myself but from what I know the term for the commanding officer of more than one ship is a commodore, aren’t I correct here Admiral Hathaway?” Littlejohn asked, looking at the Starfleet Commander-in-Chief over the top of her glasses.

“You are Madam President.” She answered.

Littlejohn looked back at Burton. “Well then we can’t have the first Andorian-Earth joint fleet operation being led by a mere captain. For the duration of this operation consider yourself a commodore.”

“Err, understood Madam President.” Burton said, still in shock.  

“I want to be kept up to date through this entire operation.” Littlejohn instructed everyone. “Chancellor Margerit, does this satisfy you?”

“As I’ve already said Madam President, we appreciate your help. I will begin to coordinate my forces from here. Margerit out.”

The screen showing the Andorian leader blinked off and left just the still surprised faces of the Starfleet officers on the other side. “Commodore, if there isn’t anything else, I suggest you begin at once.” Littlejohn instructed. 

“Yes ma’am.” Burton responded with.

“I’ll be in touch.” Hathaway said, looking up at Burton.

Littlejohn nodded to someone to close the channel and looked at Hathaway and leant into her before whispering, “I certainly hope he doesn’t muck this up or my ass will be dragged out into Paris to be shot at by everyone!” After saying that, the President rose from her chair and left the situation room, followed by the Prime Minister and the other cabinet members. 

Once they had left Admiral Gardner stood closer to his superior officer. “Samuel, ensure that Burton has everything he needs.” Hathaway remarked as she watched the party of human leaders leave before rising out of her chair. “We need to prove our decision to make him captain was worth it.”

“Aye ma’am, but don’t you mean commodore now?” Gardner responded with which resulted in Hathaway showing a wry smile before they left the room.

Sleep was slowly seizing Commander Stanton. At oh-two-hundred hours in the morning he had yet to properly sleep, except for the hour power nap he took earlier in the afternoon in between helping repair the remains of the Andorian task force. Now he found himself fighting his body’s desire to close his eyelids and fall into a deep sleep. He had a job to do and one that he wasn’t actually enjoying at the moment. When he had been recalled back to Challenger, he had suspected that it was to deal with something in engineering, not to be involved in a tactical briefing with several others from the ship’s senior staff. Currently he along with Burton, Levesque, T’Plau and Yu were all in the command centre attempting to devise a plan of action which would lead to the removal of the joint Malurian-Nausicaan forces from Docana with the notion of trying to prevent the loss of a lot of life on both sides. How they would achieve that last objective he didn’t know. He was sitting at the funny T-shaped desk in the centre of the room, next to Levesque who also shared his similar appearance of looking (and most likely feeling) exhausted.

“I hate to say it sir, but I think we should call it a night and look at this with a fresh pair of eyes in the morning.” He suggested to the man who was standing staring at the large main computer screen. 

“Michael’s got a point Lloyd.” Levesque said. “Let us sleep on it and you never know we may come up with something in our dreams!”

Major Yu, who like the other two Starfleet Commanders, had undid her uniform buttons ages ago and looked drained as well. She placed the computer tablet she held in her hands on the table before Stanton. “I tend to agree with them as well sir. We’ve been at this for a number of hours now and we still aren’t close to a feasible strategy.” 

Burton rubbed the side of his face, still staring at the information before him. “Hmm, maybe you’re right.” He said in response, he didn’t want to give up though that was clear from his body language.

Stanton stood up and stretched out his body. “We need to think cleverly about getting past those mines! If they would blow up against the Malurians and Nausicaans then we would be laughing.”

Burton almost scrunched up his face as he thought about what Stanton just said and then looked at T’Plau. She rose her left eyebrow as their gazes met each other “Commodore?” She questioned, using his new title annoyingly. 

“T’Plau are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Burton said with a new leash of energy surging through him as he tapped into the console before him.

“Highly unlikely sir, we are not telepathically linked.” T’Plau deadpanned in response. “Please elaborate.”

Burton turned to the others. “If we had the chance to capture just one of those mines and find how it ticks then we might be able to find a way to diffuse them or use them to our advantage.”

“How?” Levesque asked rubbing her eyes to stay awake. “We saw what happened when the Andorians approached those mines, they exploded. We wouldn’t be able to get close to them to do any work on them.”

Burton pointed to his first officer. “We make ourselves register as a Malurian or Nausicaan ship so we can get close enough to one of them.” He turned around to face the main screen again and loaded up some sensor logs from the Andorian task force. “The Andorian sensors detected that the mines were all interlinked with each other over a network of subspace communication and sensor relays. They will only go off by a proximity alarm. If we can fool just one to think we’re not an enemy ship then we’ll be able to grab it, isolate it from the rest of the network and find out how it ticks. We may even be able to tap into the network and either take control of it or disrupt it allowing for our ships to pass through undamaged.”

“That’s an ambitious plan sir.” Stanton said as he considered Burton’s points. 

Yu placed her hands on her hips. “Even if you’re able to do all of that to the mine, how do you get close enough without being detected by the Malurians and Nausicaan ships? I’m pretty certain they’ll be prepared for us to try such a thing. We’ll need to move in there unnoticed.”

Burton considered the point carefully and then brought up a scan of the Docana system and highlighted a number of its spatial bodies; he was primarily focussing on the comets there. “We take a shuttlepod which would fly by one of these comets and use it as a shield. Then as it approaches the asteroid field it would be close enough not to be detected by the enemy ships. By the time it reaches the mines it would be registered as a friendly ship, forcing them not to explode near it. We do our business and then the shuttlepod flies out by which point the task force would have entered the system to protect it.”

“We may be able to upload a computer virus into the mine’s network which could either destroy them all in one go or give us control over them.” Stanton suggested as he looked up at the captain’s idea.

“Or we use it to cause a distraction.” T’Plau countered with.

Now it was Burton’s turn to question his armoury officer’s thinking like she just did with him. “Sub Commander?”

“If we’re able to destroy several in one go in one area then they will think we’ve returned and have masked our approach into the system. They would most likely send their ships in to meet us. At which point we would be able to move in from another direction, opposite to theirs and surprise them from a better advantage point. We may be even able to use the minefield to disable them.” T’Plau explained.

“I like it.” Levesque said with a smile.

“As do I.” Burton agreed. “By the time they realise where we are then we could be in orbit of Docana sending down ground troops to retake the planet.”

“Indeed.” T’Plau said.

Yu cleared her throat. “I hate to put a downer on our plan, which I like by the way, but our sensors have registered the remnants of nuclear explosions in the planet’s atmosphere, do we even know if there are any survivors down there?”

“We won’t know until we are in orbit.” Levesque answered as she crossed her arms against her chest. 

“Radiation sickness could be an issue we have to deal with too.” T’Plau said as she pulled up the current readings of Docana. “I would suggest we send troops down in EVA suits.”

“Definitely.” Burton replied. “After we’ve scanned the planet to determine its status.”

“So, who goes to kidnap a mine?” Yu asked next.

“I’ll go.” Burton said. “It’s my idea and I have the training to deal with mines, I won’t risk anyone else being injured from it.”

“That’s an illogical and reckless decision Commodore.” T’Plau bluntly said. “You are tasked in leading this fleet in to battle and the Andorians will only follow your orders. If something was to happen to you then they will not follow orders from anyone else. I should go as the next qualified individual on board.”

“Captain Ramirez can easily take over from me.” Burton countered, trying to dismiss her suggestion.

“T’Plau’s got a point sir.” Stanton interjected. “Also, I’ll go with her; if we encounter a sophisticated computer system then we may have seconds to deal with it. I’m the only one quick enough with computers to work out what to do.”

“Plus, if the plan doesn’t work then we need to prepare a backup plan.” Levesque added. “And with all due respect to Captain Ramirez sir, he isn’t half the tactician you are.”

Burton rubbed his chin, feeling the two days of stubble growth appearing. “Alright.” He finally said after mulling it over for a moment. “Both of you prepare Shuttlepod One for launch tomorrow at twelve-hundred hours. I want us to make our move then, the rest of you prepare the ship and crew to retake Docana.” He ordered his officers.

“Aye sir.” They all said in unison.

“Let’s get to it, dismissed.” Burton ordered and watched as they filed out of the room, already talking about how they would put their ideas into action. Burton turned back around and looked up the large wall monitor. At that moment, a single thought entered his head. He was making war against others; this was something he didn’t join Starfleet to do. He only hoped history would be kind to him when they wrote about his decision to help repel the Docana invaders.

“So, I was thinking about our backup plan,” Burton explained to Levesque in his office an hour later “we need to punch a massive hole in the minefield to get the entire fleet through, right?”

Levesque, who was standing next to the captain while he sat at his desk showing her his plan on his screen, nodded. “Yeah.” She said wanting him to continue sharing his ideas.

“We’re not going to get through the minefield and asteroids in one piece, so we need to clear a path.” He continued and tapped a button on the keyboard on his desk. The screen changed to show a section of the asteroid belt. “This part of the asteroid is far away from where Michael and T’Plau are entering from and is one of the least dense areas in the belt. We bring Challenger, Intrepid and Apollo just before it and launch multiple salvos of spatial torpedoes into the belt. The torpedoes will be programmed to detonate at certain points and the salvo pattern would need to be designed to cause the most damage in the area. The shockwaves from the detonating torpedoes should be enough to cause the mines in this area to explode.”

Levesque looked from the screen to Burton. “We don’t know how many mines there are until we get close enough. Would we be able to get them all?”

Wincing at the question as he knew his plan had a slight snag to it. “To be sure we get every single one, which would also result in most of the field in that region being destroyed too, we would have to empty all three ships of their compliments of spatial torpedoes.”

“And if the Malurians and Nausicaans see what we’re doing and come after us?” She asked next.

“Then we would have the Andorian ships to watch our backs. Hopefully by the time they’ve realised what we’re doing we would have been able to fire the first few rounds of torpedoes into the field to cause some damage. They wouldn’t want to enter the asteroid field from that direction, which would force them to come around on either side of the targeted region, again giving us enough time to call in the cavalry.” Burton came back with. “On top of that, what we’ll do is have all three Starfleet ships reduce their energy signature outputs as we re-enter the Docana system. Then once the firework show starts the Andorians can join us by which time the Malurians and Nausicaans may start responding to our actions.”

“We could improve this plan if we knew the composition of the field in this area.” Levesque remarked. “If we launch a probe from where we are now then we could send it there to get a better look for us, the results will allow me to programme a more accurate pattern that would be more effective in hitting the mines.”

Burton liked his First Officer’s plan and smiled at her. “Make it so Nicole.” He said before rubbing his face to help him stay awake.

“Tired?” She asked as she stood up straighter where she had been leaning on the edge of Burton’s desk.

“Exhausted almost but don’t tell the good doctor.” He answered with a wink.

Levesque chuckled at that remark as she unfolded her arms against her chest. It had been two hours since their planning meeting with the others in the command centre and since then they had been preparing the crew and ship for their mission. “It is getting late though.” She said to him as she walked away to look at the pictures of the different ships named Challenger that were hanging in a wide glass frame along the longest wall in his office. “We should call it a night, so we are more with it when we start tomorrow.”

“You’re probably right.” Burton replied as he stretched out in his chair. At that moment the door chime went off and he sat back into his normal posture. Levesque had turned around to see who it was as Burton answered the call. “Enter.”

Ensigns Conrad and Hennessey both walked in, Conrad leading the pair through the threshold, both of them acknowledged their superior officers.

“Gentlemen, how can I help you, bearing in mind it is late and I’m about to retire for the evening.” Burton said, looking at them from his desk.

“Umm, sir we have a proposal for you.” Conrad said in a slightly nervous tone. “Well for you both actually.” He added looking at Levesque as well.

“Oh?” Burton said.

Hennessey cleared his throat. “We both feel that the mission Commander Stanton and Sub Commander T’Plau are going on would benefit if we both joined them.”

Levesque felt that was pretty presumptuous of them. “How so?” She inquired, stepping forward to stand behind Burton. She rested her hands on the back of his chair.

“Well we feel our expertise and skills would increase their chances of succeeding ma’am.” Conrad replied. “They need to fly a shuttlepod behind a comet, and I’m sure both of them are competent pilots, however neither of them have spent any recent time flying a craft let alone flying a shuttlepod using chemical engines while trailing a huge rock of ice is a difficult task itself. I’ve spent many times while on the Raven flying close to comets and flying various smaller crafts using chemical engines.”

Burton looked up at Levesque to catch her reaction to Conrad’s remarks. He was pleased she looked down at him and both of them shared a look that he recognised as her saying ‘fair enough’. 

“Alright Mister Conrad I can see why your presence may help the mission.” He looked at his communication officer. “Let me guess Ned your reason is because they may not be able to translate the language the mines are in.”

“Exactly that sir.” Hennessey said honestly. “We’ve yet to determine if these mines are Malurian or Nausicaan in origin, or for that case some other race. As such my skills in exo-linguistics could mean the difference in them being able to diffuse these floating bombs before it becomes too late. Truth be told sir I don’t want to go but I know if I don’t go then we may regret it if they encounter problems that are based around a language barrier.”

“I’m sure either Commander Stanton or Sub Commander T’Plau will be able to overcome it.” Levesque stated.

“Most likely but I don’t think it’s worth the risk.” Hennessey countered.

Burton leant forward on his desk, his elbow supporting against the edge while he rested his chin against the palm of his right hand as he looked up at both men. “I think you both make valid arguments.”

“You do?” Levesque quizzed, trying not to show her surprise in his reaction to their suggestion.

“I do.” He nodded to her before looking back at them. “But,” He now pointed at them both, “If you join them then I expect all four of you to return with not even a scratch on any of you!”

The two ensigns smiled at this. “That’s a deal sir.” Conrad said, extending his hand towards his captain to shake his hand.

Burton stood up and shook his hand before offering Hennessey to shake his. “I take it your deputies are prepared to take over your duties?” He asked while shaking his communications officer’s hand.

“Ensign Larsen has been briefed sir.” Hennessey said after letting go of his captain’s hand.

“And Angela is ready too.” Conrad added.

“Then I suggest you both report to the launch bay and get yourself ready for your little trip.” Burton recommended. “Dismissed gentlemen.”

The two of them smiled at Burton and Levesque before leaving them.  Burton turned to look at Levesque. “I really do hope they come back in one piece.”

“You and me both.” She returned before they left the office to call it a night.

Ensign Martha Habiba was walking down the corridors of E Deck towards the mess hall to grab a drink of hot chocolate before heading off to bed. She had come off duty only two hours ago. In that time, she had showered, changed into some comfortable civilian clothing and had replied to a message from her sister. Her sister, Keisha, was one of Earth’s leading news anchors for the British Broadcasting Cooperation and was the lead anchor for the flagship news service that happened at eighteen hundred hours. Keisha had mentioned in her message to Martha about some of the news coming from across the Commonwealth but had also spoken about their mother’s recent birthday celebrations. Martha had felt guilty about not being there with the rest of the family to celebrate the occasion, even her brother Reggie had attended which surprised Keisha.  

“Hey Martha!” A familiar voice masculine said from behind her.

She stopped where she was walking and turned around to see Ensign Stewart approaching her. They had not seen each other since their run-in this morning outside his quarters and Ensign Conrad’s. “Oh, hi Niall.” She returned as he joined her. Instantly she linked her left arm into his right arm as he approached her. 

“Heading to the mess hall?” He asked as they carried on walking.

“Yup.” She said back, popping the ‘p’ sound at the end. “A hot chocolate and then I’m off to bed, you?”

“I was heading back to my quarters but a hot chocolate sounds good.” He said. Like her, Ensign Stewart was also out of his uniform and was wearing a baggy grey hoodie with navy blue sweatpants.

“No Liam tonight?” She inquired as they turned right down the intersection and passed the galley.

Stewart shook his head. “No, he got called back to do another round of training with Sergeant Iyer for the mission.” He looked down at her; she was less than an inch shorter than him. “What about you and Jack?” He asked in a lower volume.

She smiled at the mention of their chief pilot. “No, I won’t be see-” She stopped talking as the man himself walked down towards them from the other end of the corridor.

“Hey.” Ensign Conrad said towards Habiba as the three ensigns all stopped in the middle of the corridor as they met up.

“Hi.” She said to him, holding on to Stewart’s arm a bit tighter than before.

Conrad noticed her holding on to Stewart but didn’t say anything as he knew that Stewart wouldn’t be interested in her as he was with Private Jenkins. “Look I’ve been assigned to the shuttlepod mission now, so I just wanted to say…umm…well.” He nervously uttered trying to search for the right words.

Stewart cleared his throat before speaking up. “I’ll leave you both to it.” He looked to Habiba, “Martha I’ll see you in the mess hall in a moment.”

She smiled and nodded in appreciation for her friend noticing the awkwardness that was occurring and leaving them to deal with it without an audience. She noticed that the senior nurse had put up his thumbs towards her and winked at her in a cheeky manner while Conrad had his back to him. She held back her laugh and looked back at the pilot. “Sorry about that Jack.” She whispered, not wanting anyone else to hear their conversation.

He smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Look Martha, what we’ve been doing…it’s just I don’t normally…what I’m trying to say is…” He stammered out before pausing and taking a breath. “I’m trying to tell you I don’t normally carry on with someone more than once, if that makes sense?”

“Oh.” Habiba responded with, she was a bit confused to what he was saying.

“No, wait that didn’t come out right.” Conrad said extended his hands outwards to take hers. “What I meant to say is I’ve never been in a situation like us,” He paused. “I’m still babbling!” He groaned inwards, looked up at the corridor’s ceiling for some divine intervention before looking back at her. “What I’m really trying to say is…I like seeing you.” He smiled and she smiled at that.

“I like seeing you too.” She returned.

“Cool.” Conrad replied. “I was thinking that we could do more.” 

“More?” She repeated back, still unsure what he meant.

Shaking his head in desperation, “No, no, I don’t mean more of what we’ve been doing.” He quietly said, articulating every word so she understood what he meant. “I mean the things we’ve been doing have been great! Don’t get me wrong!”

She chuckled. “You mean the sex has been good!”

“Without a doubt!” Conrad quickly answered back. “What I want to say is…” He took a breath in to gain some courage. “Once I’m back do you want to have dinner with me?”

Her smile got bigger. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

“Yes, am I being charming enough to succeed?” He asked back.

“You are and yes dinner sounds lovely.” She replied.

Conrad’s huge boyish grin appeared on his face as a sign of his personal victory. “Cool!” He said at first. 

“Just don’t get yourself killed on this mission.” She said before leaning in and placing a light kiss on his cheek, she didn’t want to succumb completely to his charm and to make him think he easily had her but on the other side she wanted to show him she liked what he had said to her.

“I promise not to!” He answered after she leant back and released her hands from his. “I’ve got to get to the launch bay.”

“Hurry back.” She whispered into his ear before walking pass him and making her way down the corridor leaving him standing alone for a moment in the centre of the corridor. 

A minute or so later she entered the mess hall to see it wasn’t completely busy but had a few people there. She soon saw Ensign Stewart sat on one of the tables with two mugs before him. He caught her eye and indicated for her to join him and that one of the mugs was for her.

“Well?” He asked as she sat down next to him and picked up the mug she left for him.

“Let’s just say, you and Liam have competition now!” She replied in between sips.

“Unlikely,” Stewart fired back in defence of his relationship with his boyfriend. “So, I take it you and our top flyboy are taking it to the next level?”

“We sure are. When he returns, we’re having dinner together.” She reported as she placed her mug down.

“And who knows he may even take you to movie night next week!” He excitedly said.

“Don’t get jealous Niall; we all know that Jack and I will outdo you and Liam in the cute couple competition!” She countered back.

“Oh, the competition is on!” Stewart said back and lifted his mug to hers to toast to their relationships.

“You betcha!” She said as she tapped her mug with his, her smile from earlier returning. She now had something to reply with when she wrote back to her sister.

“You’re dropping your right elbow Liam!” Iyer shouted at the younger soldier as they continued their sparring practice in the training gymnasium on C Deck. 

Jenkins sighed as lifted his elbow back up and quickly duct to the side to avoid receiving a blow from Iyer. “Yes sir!” He sternly replied with. The younger man dodged another punch and returned the favour with his own being able to make contact with Iyer’s head protection gear.

“Better!” Iyer said after shaking the blow off.

Jenkins smiled at the compliment as they moved around the room, avoiding each other’s attacks against each other.  “I’m learning from the best.”

“Praising me isn’t going to get you far, Private!” Iyer stated as he was able to knock Jenkins down with a swing to his legs. He held him down on the floor for a moment and watched the surrender appear in the man’s face. He realised he was unfocussed while speaking and didn’t anticipate the Staff Sergeant’s quick assault against him. “Let’s call it a night Liam.” Iyer said in a hoarse tone, showing his exhaustion and extended his hand out to help him up.

Jenkins took the help and pulled himself up. “Yeah it’s getting late and I haven’t seen Niall since this morning.”

Iyer laughed as he pulled his protection gear off from around his head after taking his gloves off. “How are things going with Ensign Stewart since you moved in together?”

Liam was wiping the sweat off his face with a white towel when he answered. “Really good thanks.” He was smiling at the thought of seeing his boyfriend shortly before looking up at his superior. “What about you sir, are you seeing anyone if you don’t mind me asking?”

“There was this woman I was seeing back on Earth, however with my assignment to Challenger we called it a day.” Iyer explained solemnly as he thought about her. He shook his head, trying to knock the bitter memories out of his mind. “She didn’t want to be a widow.” He said looking back at Jenkins.

Jenkins was somewhat surprised at Iyer’s story, particularly as the man came across as a calm, peaceful and friendly individual. He had an excellent sense of humour and wondered why no one would want to wait for him back at home. “Niall said to me that things happen for a reason, so sir if it was meant to be then it was meant to be for a reason.”

“Wise words there.” Iyer acknowledged. “So, will you both be Challenger’s first married couple?”

The young soldier’s eyes just opened wider at the mention of marriage as he put on his black hoodie. “I…ummm…well…”

Iyer laughed at the discomfort he had caused for Jenkins. “I’m joking Liam, chill out.” He said as he put on a baggy jumper over his vest. “But I’m pretty certain you both would enter the record books for being the first couple married on a NX-class ship.”

“Great, that’s exactly how I want to be remembered!” Jenkins sarcastically said as he whipped his black gym bag over his shoulder. “See you tomorrow morning for the briefing?”

Laughing to himself, Iyer just waved his friend off. “Yeah, oh-nine hundred hours. Enjoy the lay-in.”

Jenkins, who had started to walk towards the exit, looked over his shoulder and smiled at the last comment before making his way out and back to his home. 

Imperial Bird-of-Prey ChR Dhivael

Commander T’Voras stood quietly in the dark confines of his quarters on level three of the Dhivael. He was staring out of the large oval shaped window at the star his ship currently orbited. The blazing orange ball of gas caused an amazing hue against the ship’s hull, almost making it look like the bird-shaped body was in flames. An almost smug expression sat on his face as he considered the current victory that he had obtained for the Romulan Star Empire. The plan to use the Nausicaans and Malurians to attack the Andorsu colony had gone well. The barrier that surrounded the planet, filled with mines, had kept the blue-antennae devils at bay. However, he had a new matter to deal with and was waiting to hear what to do.

“Morek to T’Voras.” Spoke the familiar voice of his operations officer.

“Go ahead.” T’Voras spoke after responding by tapping on one of the buttons on his desk that sat close to the oval-shaped window.

“Incoming secured call for you Commander from Romulus.” He stated.

“Patch it through to my quarters at once.” T’Voras ordered as he straightened out his uniform and sat down at his desk. His computer terminal came to life as the Decurion carried out his orders. The face of Admiral Valdore appeared after the emblem of the Empire vanished. “Jolan’tru Admiral Valdore. I am grateful you are able to return my call.”

“Jolan’tru Commander, what do you have to report for me?” The flag officer asked from his own office back on the homeworld.

“I am pleased to say our allies’ occupation of the Andorsu world has gone to plan. They even tried to send a defence force that was easily overwhelmed by the mines laid out.” T’Voras stated.

“Excellent, this blow to them will help with our grander scheme of crushing the Coalition of Planets.” Valdore said with an almost sadistic tone.

“Talking of which sir, the Hevam have sent three ships alongside their Andorha allies.” T’Voras mentioned. “The lead ship is Ch’lenjer, the ship we engaged at Gai’h’er-mne. I believe her commanding officer will strike back again in defence of his allies.”

Valdore considered this for the moment. “Then tell our dear friends that they ensure the Hevam captain does not succeed.”

“The minefield is strong sir; I am confident they will not be able to get past it without suffering heavy damage and casualties which will make them an easy target.”

“Don’t become overconfident, Commander. Ensure you deal with this threat quickly; we need to ensure the disruption we’ve caused will keep the Andorsu busy for some time while we engage on our other fronts.” Valdore stated.

“Understood sir.”

“Jolan’tru Commander.” Valdore said and punched his console to close the channel.T’Voras watched his superior officer disappear before relaxing in his chair. He was certain enough that there was nothing the Hevam or Andorsu would be able to stop them, well in particular their Nausicaan and Malurian allies.

“Captain’s, I mean Commodore’s star log April Twenty-Seventh, Twenty-One-Fifty-Five. What I’ve designated as Operation: Jericho has begun. I’m reminded of the biblical story that my grandmother used to share with my brothers, sister and I as youngsters about how Joshua marched his people around the city of Jericho to bring its massive walls down so they could enter it. Unlike Joshua, I don’t plan to march my people around the Docana asteroid belt in the hopes it will collapse. Yet the minefield wall that sits between us and them will come down. Like Joshua I am sending a team ahead of us to find out what it’s like behind the enemy lines, and hopefully find a way of bringing the minefield down. My heart is still set on being able to achieve a peaceful diplomatic agreement with the Malurians and Nausicaans; however, this may be difficult to reach. Sub Commander T’Plau has reminded me that both races are aggressive in nature. To top that all, earlier this morning I received a message from the Andorian Chancellor. She is resolved to ensure they pay for their aggression against the Andorian Empire. Can I blame her for feeling that way? I think not, however if we are not able to find a peaceful resolution then it may cause issues for the Coalition later. Finally, I’m pleased to say Challenger’s crew have responded with the dedication and loyalty I’ve come to expect of them since our launch. Once again, we find ourselves fighting and not exploring. Here’s hoping this will be our last battle for some time.”

The ventral access doors to launch bay one opened and Shuttlepod One dropped elegantly into the void of space, as it did its wings extended and its small aft engine came to life, pushing itself away from Challenger towards the Docana system.

“We’re clear.” Ensign Conrad stated from the head of the cockpit after checking his readings. 

“Lay in a course for Rahab.” Commander Stanton ordered from behind him as he adjusted his EVA suit. Rahab had been the name of the woman who had helped hide two of Joshua’s men prior to their assault on Jericho. The name seemed fitting and as a result, the captain had nicknamed the comet they would be using to help them into the Docana system with that designation. The chief engineer looked around the small craft at the team he was leading. All of them were seated, helmet-less, in their EVA suits ready to see what awaited them ahead in the Docana asteroid belt. T’Plau sat on his right operating the other support station behind Conrad while Ensign Hennessey remained still behind them on the cushioned benches.

“Sensors aren’t detecting any Malurian or Nausicaan vessels on our approach vector.” T’Plau said after a while. 

“Let’s hope they don’t see us.” Hennessey quietly said.

Stanton smiled at the ensign’s semi-prayer. “They shouldn’t, especially once we land on the Rahab comet then they won’t pick us up.”

“Until we start blowing up their mines!” Conrad added with a cheeky smile as he turned around in his chair to look at everyone else.

“In theory Ensign they won’t know it us if we are able to access their minefield’s network.” T’Plau said. “Even when we start to detonate them.”

“I hope you’re both right about this.” Hennessey said before taking out a data tablet from his pocket and switched it on.

“What are you reading?” Stanton asked, motioning his head towards the small computer device in the linguistics’ hands. 

“I’m brushing up on my Nausicaan and Malurian.” He answered back. “If you don’t mind, I would prefer to do it in private.”

Stanton raised his hands in surrender, not wanting to disturb the man as he connected his earphones into the data-tablet to listen to the languages. They would have at least six hours to travel to their destination.  The engineer looked over to the Vulcan tactical officer who had returned to immersing herself in her work while their cheeky pilot had returned to concentrating on getting them to where they were headed. Stanton sighed to himself; this was going to be a quiet journey he thought. He took one more glance over the shuttlepod’s systems. He had installed chemical engines to its underbelly to avoid the enemy ships detecting the ion wake of their main engine once they finished hitchhiking on the comet. His engineers had rigged up a power source powerful enough for the mine’s sensors to register them as a Nausicaan ship. He only hoped it all worked and didn’t come crashing down around them. 

Before they left Challenger, he had written a letter to Alex just in case they didn’t survive the mission. In it he had told him how sorry he was he had left him and that he hoped he understood that for the first time in his Starfleet career he was beginning to really enjoy the risks that the job brought. Michael considered that to sound a bit crazy but there was something since joining Challenger that had changed him. He felt more confident with himself, with his role on the ship and taking on the difficult tasks that being a chief engineer of one of the fastest Earth ships entailed. 

“Sub Commander,” Stanton said, disturbing the Vulcan woman beside him.

T’Plau, who remained sitting up straight in her chair, turned to look at the chief engineer. “Yes Commander?”

“Do you have a family?” He asked quietly.

She nodded. “I do.”

“Do you remain in touch with them?” 

She stopped her work and turned to look at them. “I often write to them when I have the opportunity. Do you have a point with your line of questioning Commander?”

He nodded in response. “Before you go off on a possible dangerous mission do you prepare a final goodbye to them in writing?”

She raised her left eyebrow in a typical Vulcan manner. “I do not.” She instantly returned to her work.

“You don’t?” Stanton quizzed, confused as to why she wouldn’t.

“Did you Commander?” Ensign Conrad asked from the helm.

Michael looked towards the pilot’s direction. “I did, well I only had time to prepare a message to my partner. Did you Jack?”

Conrad nodded his head. “Yeah, it’s saved and ready to go to my parents if anything happens to me.”

“I am quite curious to the reason why you both prepared such a message?” T’Plau interjected with; she resisted the temptation from looking up from her controls. “Do your loved ones not know you are on Challenger and the seriousness that it brings to the possibility of you being injured while in such a post?”

Stanton rested his hands on his lap. “Yeah they do Sub Commander but it’s about having that sense of comfort of knowing that you’ve got all of your affairs in order and said your final goodbyes. Do Vulcans not do that?”

“What you are summarising is linked to an emotional reaction. Vulcans do not write goodbye letters to their loved ones. We do not see the logic in wasting time, especially when the government would inform our families of our demise in the line of duty.”  T’Plau said coldly.

“Surely even Vulcan families would appreciate their loved ones saying a final goodbye and sharing with them their final thoughts?” Stanton countered back. “Surely that would help them be completely enlightened to understand what they were thinking before their last moments?” 

“Once again Commander I say to you that Vulcans would not see the logic in such thought process as it would be an ineffective use of our time.” T’Plau remarked, “However I can appreciate your last argument. To understand someone’s final thoughts in their last moments would be highly interesting to know.”

Stanton nodded with a smile; glad he was able to get their Vulcan exchange officer to see their logic on some level. “What would you say in yours if you were to write one?” He asked her.

She finally gave in and stopped working momentarily. “I have not given it any thought. What did you write in the letter you prepared for your partner?”

Smiling at what he wrote, Michael looked down at his console as he remembered the context of his letter to Alex. “I told Alex how much I loved him, how glad I was that we got back together and thanked him for our time together. I told him not to be afraid without me, that if he wanted to honour me then he should find someone else and know I would not feel betrayed if he did such a thing. I shared with him how much I loved my job and that I didn’t want him to blame anyone on the crew or in Starfleet for my death. I chose to do this. Finally, I told him that he had to find a new planet, moon or something spectacular to name after me once Discovery was launched and was exploring the galaxy.”

“Interesting,” T’Plau responded with. “Would you expect something similar in return from him if he died while in service?”

Stanton considered it for a second. “I would expect something similar, knowing Alex probably something mushier though!”

Conrad chuckled at that but T’Plau looked confused as she repeated his last word. “Mushier?”

“He would be more romantic with what he wrote.” Stanton explained.

“More emotional!” Conrad clarified when T’Plau still did not understand the engineer’s response.

T’Plau bowed her head, showing she now understood. “Now I hope you understand why Vulcans would not do such a thing.”

“Your loss Sub Commander.” Stanton said with a friendly smile and a shrug of his shoulders. 

“Sorry to interrupt,” Conrad said after a second. “I’ve got the comet Rahab on sensors.”

Stanton stood up and moved to be standing directly behind the pilot. He looked up to see the massive comet that they would ride on. It was as big as a football field and a huge trail behind it. “Take us down Ensign, nice and easy and without gaining a scratch!”

“Aye sir.” Conrad said, concentrating on the task before him. This would be something he had not done before, landing a small ship on a high moving celestial body. He prayed silently to himself and then pressed on the controls to begin their descent down onto the great big ball of rock and ice.

A beep came from T’Plau’s station. Stanton swivelled his entire body to look at her. “What is it?”

Sensors are detecting two ships in the comet’s trail. One is Malurian and the other is-” T’Plau paused as she verified her readings.

“And the other is?” Stanton repeated, hoping to finish the Vulcan’s sentence.

She looked away from the screen and towards the engineer. “Romulan.”

“What?!” Stanton exclaimed at the news. “How did we not notice them before?”

“It would seem we are not the only ones who detected the comet’s trail ability to mask energy signatures.” T’Plau responded. “Our sensors just picked up the subspace distortions being created from their warp engines within the trail.”

“Will they see us?” Ensign Hennessey inquired; he had something bad was happening and had pulled out his earphones to take in the events unfolding before them.

“Unlikely.” T’Plau responded as she worked her controls. “Unless Commander Stanton has installed a warp drive on the shuttlepod?”

Stanton grimaced at the thought of being caught by the enemy. “Either way I’m shutting down all power except minimum thrusters and sensors.” He quickly worked the controls at his station and the shuttlepod’s main power switched off and its emergency low level lighting filled the once brightly lit cockpit. “Jack, you’ll need to set us down with barely any engines.”

Conrad gave out a huge sigh at the challenge that now faced him. “No worry sir, our downward momentum is increasing from the gravity caused by the comet. I’ll just need thrusters to level our descent and ensure we don’t crash into the comet.”

“Yes, let’s not allow that to happen!” Hennessey worriedly said from the rear compartment.

“I would also recommend we alter our landing coordinates and find something that may help shelter us from detection.” T’Plau suggested.

“I’m open to ideas.” Stanton stated.

“Just point me in the right direction, Sub Commander.” Conrad added.

“I have found a small indentation that may be sufficient for our needs.” T’Plau said. “I’m transferring the coordinates to you now Ensign.”

“Got ‘em.” Conrad said.

“What do you think they’re up to?” Hennessey asked out aloud to anyone.

“God knows.” Stanton said as he looked out the small cabin window to his left to see if he could see the two hostile ships.

“And unfortunately we are unable to warn Challenger as it will give us away to them.” T’Plau commented on.

“Do you think the Romulans are supporting the Malurians and Nausicaans?” Conrad questioned as he attempted to fly them down. The shuttlepod started to rumble from their descent.

“You concentrate on getting us down in one-piece Ensign.” Stanton remarked.

“As I said earlier, the situation we find ourselves in that it makes more sense that a benefactor is paying for the Malurians and Nausicaans to be working together on this. It is unlikely either race would agree to a mutual alliance and forge conflict with the Andorian Empire.” T’Plau expressed. “With the tactics we’ve seen from the Romulans recently they are engaged in a stratagem that is attempting to tip the balance of power off in the region allowing them to become a superior force.”

“A superpower.” Stanton glumly said. 

“Indeed.” T’Plau responded back with. “With their drone incursions last year and their attacks using the Orions and Nausicaan against Coalition ships earlier this year, they are obviously using others to advance their cause for reasons that can only lead them to desire conquest.”

“And their attack against Coridan too.” Hennessey included. “They truly are out to get us all, aren’t they? What did we do wrong?”

“Who knows Ned?” Stanton said as he looked forward, feeling helpless that they couldn’t warn their crewmates of their findings. 

Shuttlepod One moved further and further to its destination, eventually it landed and they now waited as they piggy-backed on the large rock to their target. 

Sitting quietly behind his ready room’s desk, Burton rested his right leg over the other one with his foot lying on top of his left knee cap. Absent-mindedly he was drumming his fingers under the tablet he was reading and holding just above his lap. He had wanted to use the time that came with waiting to catch up on other business that didn’t involve him worrying about Stanton’s team. The door chime went off and he looked up. 

“Yeah come in.” He responded.

Commander Levesque entered after the door opened for her. She walked in with a tablet in her hands which held tightly to her chest. “Good news sir,” She started with.

“Oh?” Burton said as he placed his tablet on his desk.

“Well depends how you take it but just a moment ago Shuttlepod One entered the dark zone of Rahab and sensors didn’t detect a massive explosion which can only mean they’ve landed without incident.” Levesque shared with a smile.

“Let’s pray your optimism is well placed Commander.” Burton replied as he looked back at his work before looking back at her. “Is there anything else?” He asked, almost sounding anxious.

Levesque noticed his different mood and him referring to her as Commander instead of Nicole, something he normally did when it was just them two or just him, her and Stanton. She decided to ignore it and placed his reaction to the stress of the mission playing on his mind. “Yes sir.” She said holding out the tablet in her hands and passing it to him. “Something quite disturbing sir.” She said as he took the computer device from her. “T’Plau asked me if I would complete a sensor analysis she had started over the minefield, in particular when the Andorian task force entered it.”

Burton started to read through it. “The mines have tricobalt warheads?” He questioned as he read through them. 

Levesque nodded before she spoke. “T’Plau was running a comparative analysis too, using the sensor logs from the Andorians to help her. The boridium energy signatures and warhead yields are all similar to the last time a NX-class ship encountered a minefield.”

“Enterprise?” Burton inquired.

She nodded. “Yeah, the yield was a quarter of a kiloton thermo-kinetic explosion.” She paused. “Sir those mines aren’t Malurian or Nausicaan in origin, they’re Romulan.”

Burton deflated at the mention of the aggressive race that seemed to be sticking its head up everywhere lately. “Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent certain sir, I’ve compared everything to the Enterprise’s logs from when they were hit by a mine three years ago.” Levesque said. 

Burton rose from his chair and groaned slightly as he looked out at the window from his office. This news changed everything. He leant against the windowsill with both hands as he considered their next move and thought of the implications they gave.

“Looks like T’Plau was right in the notion that the Malurians and Nausicaans hadn’t done all of this by themselves.” Levesque said, filling in the silence that had occurred between them as she stared at Burton, waiting for him to make a decision.

“Indeed.” Burton said as he continued to stare out of his window. Eventually he turned around to look at her. “Share your findings with the Andorians, they deserve to know.”

Levesque paused before saying anything back. “Lloyd, if the Romulans are involved then they’ve just signed their death warrants with the Andorians for mining the Docana system.”

“And once Andoria declares war we’ll be following them.” Burton added, realising what Levesque was thinking. “Okay hold off on showing that information to the Andorians. Does anyone else on the crew know?”

She shook her head. “No, just us two.”

“Keep it that way for now. We’ll deal with it once we’ve sorted out this mess.” He said waving his right hand towards the window, gesturing to the current crisis in the Docana system.

The intercom went off and was followed by the voice of Ensign Rachele Cortez, “Bridge to Commodore Burton.”

Burton groaned at hearing people still referring to him with that rank. Damn you President Littlejohn he thought before he tapped the communications console on his desk to reply. “Go ahead Ensign.”

“Sorry to interrupt you Commodore but we’ve got something here you and Commander Levesque need to see.” The second armoury officer stated.

“We’re on our way, Burton out.” He said, closing the channel with his finger and motioning with his head for his first officer to follow him.

The two senior officers soon stepped on to the bridge from the captain’s ready room. “Report?” He asked looking around for Cortez who wasn’t at the armoury station but instead stood in the situation room. 

She turned around to see the two superior officers. Stood working with her was Ensign Angela Hathaway, their second helm officer. “Sir a minute ago Angela picked up a Malurian ship with two Nausicaan fighters escorting it and moving at sub-light speeds towards the Docana system.”

Burton moved forward into the small aft compartment of the bridge to see what she was saying, Levesque followed him too. “Do we know what their heading is?” He asked, peering over at the sensor readings before them.

Hathaway answered in her Scottish accent, “If they carry on with their course they’re heading straight for the colony; however, sir that’s not the worst of it.”

 Burton looked up at her and Levesque said the question he was going to ask. “What is it then Angela?” 

The younger woman looked at Levesque. “Ma’am if they carry on with their course, they’ll enter into a parallel course with the Rahab comet, they’ll most likely see Shuttlepod One, especially as it lifts off.”

“The news only gets better.” Burton mumbled as he leant on the edges of the table.  “We’re going to have to stop them.” He said solemnly to the three women, which they all knew what that meant. 

Levesque crossed her arms against her chest and closed her eyes in disbelief at their run of bad luck so far. She opened them and looked at Ensign Hathaway, who was the niece of the Starfleet Commander-in-Chief. “How long would it take for us to intercept them in time Angela?”

“If we move out soon then at full impulse, we can be within weapon’s range in half an hour ma’am.” She replied.

Levesque looked to Burton who just looked back at her. He nodded. “Angela lay in a course.”

“Aye sir.” Hathaway replied as she left their company to head to the helm.

“Sir obviously we’re no match against those three ships, we’ll need help from the Andorians.” Cortez stated as the three of them moved to the main part of the bridge to take their stations. “We can’t take them all either, many of them are still making repairs and were hoping to use the time for Commander Stanton’s party to reach the minefield to finish off.”

“Then we’ll just take those who are repaired and ready to go.” Burton said as he took his chair. He looked over to the communications station. “Ensign Larsen, inform all ships we’re moving out except for those who need to continue with repairs. Have Captains Ramirez and Proulx to remain with the rest of the damaged ships.”

“Aye sir.” The Swedish communications officer replied with.

Burton smoothed his uniform out as he gave out his next set of orders, “Tactical alert!” He looked at Levesque, both of them shared the same expression of anger of what they were about to deal with combined with what they both knew. This was it; they were on a war footing.

Shuttlepod One

“They have gone.” T’Plau announced after what seemed like forever. “Both ships are moving away from the comet, the Romulan ship has entered warp and the Malurians are re-entering the Docana system at sub-light speeds.”

Stanton who was sat on the floor playing a card game with Conrad paused what he was doing to listen to T’Plau’s broadcast of what seemed like good news. 

“Do you think they saw us?” Hennessey said, pulling the only earphone he had in. The communications officer had returned to learning the Malurian and Nausicaan languages with only one earphone in so he could listen to what his crewmates were saying.

“If they had then logically, they should have attacked us by now.” T’Plau answered. “I would summarise the comet was able to mask our presence and along with Commander Stanton’s quick thinking of shutting everything off they would not pick us up due to our size.”

“Let’s hope so.” Conrad mumbled as he looked at the cards he had in his hands. “Well done Commander with your quick thinking!”

Smiling at the compliment, Stanton looked at the pilot. “I’m not just a pretty face!”

Conrad and Hennessey both chuckled at the comment while T’Plau remained as straight-faced as she always did. “Indeed.” She added before returning her focus to her station.

“Do you think we could at least raise the temperature a bit in here?” Conrad asked after breathing heavily to make his breath turn into mist. 

“Only by a few degrees I’m afraid, Jack.” Stanton answered as he stood up and walked over to his station to adjust the environmental controls. As the compartment began to warm up all four officers felt the difference soon.

“Thank you Commander, that is more agreeable.” T’Plau pronounced, almost enjoying the change in temperature.

“I aim to please!” Stanton said with his boyish grin before sitting back down to return to his game with Conrad on the floor. As he did, he looked back up at T’Plau. “Would you like to join us Sub Commander?” He then looked to Hennessey, “You too Ned, come join us. We’ve got another two hours to kill before we need to launch. Take a break from whatever you’re working and enjoy yourself for a bit.”

Hennessey nodded in agreement and switched off his tablet, placed it on the bench where he had been sitting and made his way to sit on the floor with the two other men. T’Plau hesitated at first as she looked at the three men sitting below her. “What are you playing?”

“Go fish.” Conrad announced as he took in the playing cards and began shuffling them swiftly. “It’s a game of wit and intellect, are you prepared to take a chance and determine if the opposing player has the cards you’re looking for or will you end up taking on more variables then you want.”

“An interesting concept.” She stated with and moved slowly, in an almost feline fashion, to sit on the deck plate with them. “I accept, how do you play?”

“Well sit comfortably Sub Commander and we’ll show you.” Stanton said with a smile, pleased she had joined them in their game.

Challenger NX-03

The Sickbay doors parted from each other and Ro-fa Ben-Ami looked up from where she sat on the pedestal at her side desk to see who was entering. She smiled instantaneously as she saw her right-hand man, Ensign Stewart, coming in alongside Private Jenkins. The moment she caught his eye she noticed he quickly let go of Jenkins’ hand where he had his fingers intertwined with. Stewart was obviously doing his best to remain professional while they were on duty. She looked down at her work and suppressed her smile at how her deputy conducted himself. Young love she thought to herself. At that point she looked up at the small photo frame that sat on the side of her computer monitor. In it held a picture of her ex-husband, her and their daughter. The painful memory of losing her daughter Zivah, which caused her marriage to Avram to fall apart, still stung. Avram had died almost two years before their divorce; he had got himself caught in the reckless Terra Nova movement on the Orpheus Mining Colony on Luna. Putting those miserable memories to rest she looked back up at the two men entering sickbay.

“The recovery ward is all tidy.” Stewart said as he approached her.

Ben-Ami pushed her long black hair behind her right ear and sipped on the coffee she held in her left hand. “Thank you, Niall,” She returned and looked to the other man, “And the same to you Liam for helping out.”

The young MACO smiled at the compliment and looked at his boyfriend. “It’s all I can do to return the favour in allowing me to do my medical training with you and Ensign Stewart.”

Stewart blushed at this and looked at his boss. “Are we good to go off duty, unless there’s anything else you need done?”

The doctor shook her head. “No, Crewmember Kovách is about to come on duty and I plan to leave her the great job of re-stocking our inventory. You boys go off and enjoy your evening before we’re taken to tactical alert!” She said in a cruel but friendly manner before taking a sip of her coffee.

Stewart laughed at how Ben-Ami could be in giving our mundane and boring assignments to her medical staff. He had suffered from her cruelty on a few occasions since the ship’s launch. “Alright I’ll leave that lovely job to Melánia!” He said before turning on his toes, grabbing Jenkins hand intertwining their fingers like before. 

Beni-Ami smiled at the scene of the two of them walking out, hand-in-hand. She leant over to place her mug down on the side when the lighting and computer displays around them dimmed and changed colour indicating the ship was put on tactical alert.

“Spoke too soon!” She heard Jenkins say as the two men stopped before approaching the door. They both turned around to look at the Chief Medical Officer. Ben-Ami had already jumped off her seat and was reading what the bridge was ordering. “We’re moving in to stop Malurian and Nausicaan ships from entering the Docana system.”

Stewart deflated where he stood, disheartened that their evening had been spoiled and that he would have to return to duty. 

“Sorry boys, we’ve got to get to work! Niall, I need you to call in the team and begin prepping triage.” Ben-Ami said as she began bringing all of sickbay’s systems off from standby mode.

Jenkins looked to his boyfriend, “I best go report in to see where I’m needed.”

“Okay.” Stewart nodded glumly. 

Jenkins leant forward and kissed Stewart on the cheek, “I’ll see you later.” He said with a mischievous wink and turned around to open the door to leave them. 

Stewart watched for a second as Jenkins left him before making his way to get on with carrying out his orders from the doctor. He only hoped they wouldn’t be inundated with too many injuries this time.

The moment a tactical alert had been sounded the buzz and commotion in main engineering had increased. Lieutenant junior grade Sakura Masuko took in a deep breath from where she stood on the raised platform next to the warp reactor. This was the first time she would be in charge of engineering without Commander Stanton. She closed her eyes as she inhaled and then opened them and like a switch had been flicked inside her she automatically started to hand out orders. 

“Alright people,” She started as they all looked to her for direction. “You know what we have to do, follow our normal procedures for tactical alert and let’s make Commander Stanton proud of what we can achieve.” The engineers all nodded and quickly went back to their work. Masuko hoped that little prep rally would be enough to keep them all going without their Chief Engineer. She soon stepped off the stage and made her way over to one of the main command consoles to look up what was happening. As the acting department head, it was her responsibility to carry out such duties. She pulled up the message that had come from the tactical station on the bridge after the tactical alert had been sounded. She read Ensign Cortez’s message that the ship was moving in to stop a Malurian ship and its Nausicaan escorts from entering the system. 

“More fighting.” She mumbled to herself as she closed the message down. “Ensign Metaxas,” She called out to the ship’s third engineer who would be acting as her deputy in their current situation. 

The Greek engineer was on the upper level, he quickly responded by sliding down the stairwell’s banisters and jumping off onto the deck to be by her side almost instantly. “Yes ma’am.”

Masuko rolled her eyes at the younger officer’s antics. “You knew Commander Stanton would give you an ear-bashing if he saw you do that!”

He smirked at her in response.

“Theo,” She said using his abbreviated name, Theo was short for Theodoros. “We’re about to go into battle so I want you to make sure the hull plating has enough power and keep an eye on the targeting scanners.”

Metaxas gave her a jokey salute. “Understood, we don’t want Rachel to hit the wrong thing now!” He said before moving off to carry out her orders.

“Lieutenant,” Senior Chief Petty Officer Ghislaine Dubois called towards Masuko from the other side of the room in her thick French accent.

The Japanese engineer looked up from where she had yet to move from the command console towards the ship’s Chief of the Boat, who was now approaching her. “What is it Chief?”

“Major Yu has asked if we want extra hands to help out here.” Dubois stated as she came within reach of the acting chief engineer. “She’s got some MACOs on standby if we need them.”

Shaking her head as she moved away from where she stood to climb back up onto the stage to stand next to Challenger’s main source of propulsion. “Tell the Major thanks but no thanks, unless we need them to fight off any intruders or for damage control. I don’t want to be handing out extra assignments for the sake of doing it.”

Dubois smiled at Masuko’s reply. She had pretty much said the same thing that Commander Stanton had said time after time to the good Major. “Understood ma’am.” The older woman said before making her way to let the MACO leader know their answer.

Masuko returned her attention back to reading the main console’s readouts to ensure the warp drive’s intermix ratio was evenly balanced out. She had yet to get used to having some people, like Dubois, calling her ma’am especially if they were older then her. Dubois, who held the joint role of Chief of the Boat and Quartermaster, was an experienced engineer and enlisted officer. She had worked on more ships than anyone else on Challenger and for that impressive record Masuko admired the woman. Dubois had always shrugged it off saying that she may have served on most ships, but those assignments had never lasted more than a few months at a time. She had planned to remain on Challenger for at least a year. Masuko hoped they would survive at least a year, especially with the way things were going for them.

“They’re not responding sir.” Ensign Larsen said with one finger pressing against his earpiece.

Burton rolled his eyes at the news; he wasn’t expecting the oncoming ships to respond to their hails. He looked to Levesque who also shared the same annoyed expression on her face. “Open a channel.” He ordered after looking back at the relief communications officer.

Larsen nodded to show his acceptance of his orders and tapped at the communications console. A second later he signalled the channel was open.

“Approaching Malurian and Nausicaan ships, this is Capt-” He paused as he quickly corrected himself, “Commodore Lloyd Burton of the Earth starship Challenger in command of this joint Earth-Andorian task force. Your ships have committed acts of aggression against the Andorian Empire and I will not permit your vessels to enter the Docana system. Stand down immediately or face the consequence.”

Several seconds passed and there was no response. They all knew where this was heading. Burton, who was sitting in his chair and appeared extremely composed in such a tense situation, looked over to the armoury station. “Ensign, fire several warning shots off their port bow from our phase cannons.”

“Aye sir.” Cortez replied as she locked on to her targets.

Challenger’s phase cannons all deployed; the forward ventral cannons came to life as four shots were fired and missed the enemy ships by only a few metres. The Malurian ship and Nausicaan raiders continued with their course though.

“They’re locking their weapons on us.” Levesque announced after Cortez had followed her orders.

“Ensign Larsen, open a channel to the fleet.” Burton ordered next. The moment the signal went off proving the channel was open Burton spoke up again. “Burton to the fleet break formation and engage your targets,” He paused before adding: “Good luck!” He gestured for Larsen to close the channel, “Okay everyone let’s show them we mean business. Move us in with our support ships and fire at will until the Malurian ship is disabled.”

Challenger flew straight on against the enemy ships with two Kumari­-class Andorian battleships joining them while the other Andorian ships broke formation to engage the Nausicaan raiders. The plan had been to disable the Malurians and Nausicaans and hopefully the message would get back to the others that were in orbit of Docana that the joint task force meant business. 

Cortez’s fingers flew across the weapons controls as she locked on to the Malurian ship, their first objective was to take out their energy shields.  Her wedding ring sparkled over the keyboard and for a moment she thought of her late wife, Sasha. For a moment she wondered if she would be proud of the work she had accomplished so far. Rachele knew that Sasha was out there looking out for her. She missed her so much. Snapping out of the random thought, she placed her attention back to her firing solution. She fired a number of shots from the forward phase cannons followed by a small barrage of four photonic torpedoes as Challenger flew past them being flanked by their Andorian allies who were also firing. The Malurian ship began to return fire and hit all three ships from its numerous disruptor banks. 

“Bring us back around,” Burton commanded Hathaway who was keeping her hands tightly gripped around the helm controls as she piloted the ship in between the fight. “Status of their shields?” He asked Cortez.

Cortez read the sensor readouts before calling out, “They’re at sixty-two percent.”

“Do the same again, Ensign.” Burton told her. “Concentrate a full blast from all the cannons on the same location we hit last time.”

Hathaway moved Challenger around on her belly before setting her back on a similar course as before, the Andorian battleships staying close to her. As they manoeuvred the Malurian ship continued to open fire, scoring a number of hits against the allied vessels.

“Hull plating at seventy-six percent.” Levesque shouted over the commotion as the ship was hit again. 

Cortez opened fire once more, this time only using the phase cannons; she wanted to score as many hits as she could. She programmed them all to keep on firing the same part of the ship she had hit on their first pass. Keeping her concentration tight she could feel her fingertips starting to hurt from the constant moving they were doing across her keyboard. She needed to make each hit count. Fortunately for them the Andorians were being a bit heavier handily and pummelled the Malurian ship with a barrage of torpedoes. The multiple bombardments were enough to knock out the Malurian ship’s energy shields and cause hull damage. Quickly Cortez scanned the ship to learn the location of its weapons so she could take them out. However, before she could lock on, the ship rocked hard and she lost her concentration on her work.

“Sir, one of the Nausicaan ships has been destroyed!” Levesque announced.

“What?!” Burton replied in disbelief. He got up from his chair and moved himself to stand behind her to see what she was seeing from the sensors. 

“The Andorians had knocked their shields down and destroyed it with a salvo of torpedoes. It didn’t stand a chance.” Levesque reported.

“I told them to shoot to disable it!” Burton said angrily, he knew they were feeling vengeful for what happened in the minefield and the fact the colony had fallen but they didn’t need to do this, especially if they were ever able to find a peaceful solution to resolve this conflict.

Cortez was about to fire the ship’s phase cannons at her target when her sensors registered a similar attack coming from the Andorian ships that had no target now, they were all aiming at her target of the Malurian ship. “Sir we need to move out of the blast radius now, the Andorians ships are now concentrating all of their fire on the Malurian ship!”

Cursing under his breath, Burton moved back to stand in front of his chair as he yelled out his next round of orders. “Miss Hathaway, move us out of range, full impulse! And Mister Larsen, inform the Andorian ships to stand down!”

Hathaway did as she was told and moved Challenger away from the fighting as the last remaining Nausicaan ship shared its sister-ship’s death. Eventually the Malurian ships succumbed to a similar fate. The entire bridge crew observed in silence as the Andorians mopped up the mess of their battle.

“Sir the Andorians are responding to us however it isn’t from their ship. We have an incoming signal from Andoria; Chancellor Margerit wishes to speak with you.” Larsen stated.

Everyone could see how fuming angry their commanding officer was. “Transfer the call to my office.” He replied, “Commander Levesque you’re with me, Ensign Cortez the bridge is yours.” He finished as he made his way to his ready room.

“Madam Chancellor, this is completely outrageous!” Burton almost screamed at his desk monitor. He stood before it with Levesque at his side. “You placed me in command of this task force; I can’t fulfil that responsibility if those I lead do not follow my orders!”

The Andorian leader raised her hand to halt Burton from protesting any more. “I am sorry Commodore but Commander Thyss had informed me of what was happening and gave me a direct live feed. I ordered him to destroy those ships. I will not have any form of mercy handed to those that invade Andorian soil and butcher my people.”

“Chancellor with respect, we share our deepest sympathies with you at the tragedies that have happened at Docana, but you can’t expect us to work together if you undermined our operations in such a manner.” Levesque interjected. She had noticed how furious Burton was getting and took the chance to add in her two cents to the conversation. 

“They needed to understand what it was like to lose people.” Margerit replied as she justified her position.

“On my world we have a saying, an eye for an eye, when it comes to revenge and that’s exactly what has happened here.” Burton explained after a second trying to cool off. “Madam Chancellor I echo my First Officer’s words when we say we understand how angry you are at what has happened nevertheless if you want us to command this task force and to help rescue your people then things need to be done our way. We were hoping to capture those ships to gain possible valuable intelligence that will help us in liberating Docana. Now we won’t have that chance. It could also have helped us in finding a peaceful solution to this mess.”

“Unfortunately, you both also need to understand that a clear message needs to be sent to the Malurians and Nausicaans. The Andorian Empire does not roll over when it is attacked. We strike back!” Margerit explained. “That said, I give you my word now that you are in complete command of that task force.”

Burton considered her words for a moment. “Chancellor, if we find anything that changes that position, I promise you that I will order all Starfleet forces in the area to pull out of Andorian territory and I will advise President Littlejohn of your actions. I’m pretty certain she will be joined by the others in the Coalition in condemning them.”

“Do not threaten me Commodore.” Margerit said. “I will apologise to you for my actions. I hope you can understand I feel powerless in my inability to do anything from where I am. As a former general I’m more used to being on the frontlines giving out the orders.”

“Then trust me to get the job done Chancellor.” Burton returned with.

She considered his words for a second. “Very well Commodore.” She then closed the channel and Burton turned to face Levesque. “Get a message to Admiral Gardner telling him what has happened and to Ambassador Agos as well.”

“What happens if the Andorians intercept them?” Levesque countered back with.

“Let them, it shows them we’re not going to be pushed around.” Burton returned as he led them both out of his ready room and back on to the bridge. 

He went back to his chair and as he sat down, he looked at his pilot. “Miss Hathaway lay a course back to the rest of the task force, full impulse.”

Shuttlepod One

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we have finally arrived at our destination, thank you for flying with Conrad Airways!” Conrad said in an almost feminine voice after Shuttlepod One had landed on the asteroid that contained the minefield they were going after.

Stanton and Hennessey chuckled at the pilot’s humour while they finished off putting the last of the EVA suits on. T’Plau only raised her eyebrow in response to what Conrad had said as she too continued with putting her EVA suit on. 

Conrad at this time had spun around in his chair and placed his helmet on, not wanting to be sucked out into space when they opened the hatched and depressurised the cabin. “How long do you think it will take?”

“That is something we are unable to estimate yet Ensign.” T’Plau said as she locked her helmet in placed and activated the gas tanks on her back so she could breath.

“Don’t worry Jack we’ll call you when we know.” Stanton said as he copied T’Plau’s actions. 

After checking each other’s EVA suits the three officers departed from the small craft with Conrad wishing them luck as they left him behind. Slowly they bounced across the large rocky surface towards their target. 

“I’m starting to regret agreeing to this.” Stanton remarked. 

“Are you not comfortable Commander?” T’Plau asked as she took out her scanner to ensure they were on the right path. 

“Let’s say I never enjoyed the training wearing these suits.” He grumbled as they went past several small craters.

“Can’t say it bothered me too much.” Hennessey added. “The only thing that bothered me was doing zero-g training underwater. I was more worried about drowning and suffocating in the void of space.”

“That makes two of us Ned.” Stanton replied with an easy chuckle.

Soon enough they saw their prize. Sat alone with four stabilising legs holding it up was the mine they were going to diffuse and use to take control of the minefield. Slowly they approached it and were all scanning it.

“Hmm.” Hennessey said as he studied the inscription on the side of the mine. “Well that’s very interesting.” He pointed out.

“What have you found Ensign?” T’Plau said as she looked up from what her Vulcan designed scanner was telling her.

“Come take a look at these markings.” He said pointing to them. 

T’Plau and Stanton gracefully moved closer to see what he had been scrutinising.

“What’s wrong?” Stanton probed, baffled at trying to work out what the linguist was getting at.

“That’s neither Malurian nor Nausicaan writing.” Hennessey mentioned.

“Well what is it?” Stanton asked.

“Romulan.” T’Plau said.

“Indeed.” Hennessey said in agreement.

All three of them stood up straight and looked at the mine now with dread. 

“It makes sense now.” Stanton said. “The reason why we saw the Romulans with the Malurian ship.”

“Your logic is correct Commander.” T’Plau stated. “The evidence to date clearly shows the Romulans are fully involved in this. I had pondered how either the Malurians or Nausicaans could mine the entire system without being detected by the Andorians.”

“The Romulans possess stealth like technology, don’t they?” Stanton asked her.

She nodded. “Indeed, when Captain Archer dealt with them last year and a couple of years ago they showed impressive technology that could hide their vessels as well as an entire minefield.”

“Well then it seems then our mission’s urgency has increased.” Hennessey stated. “If the Romulans succeed in whatever their planning to do with this system then it will only cause more trouble for the Andorians as well as the other worlds in the Coalition.”

“A logical assumption.” T’Plau agreed.

“We’ve got three detonation matrixes to disable before we can access the communication relays.” Stanton said, looking up from his scanner. “Let’s get started.” He said before tapping the button on his chest to open a channel. “Stanton to Shuttlepod One.”

“Go ahead Commander.” Conrad’s voice crackled over their earpieces.

“Jack, we’ve discovered that the mine is Romulan in origin.” He said into the inbuilt microphone in his suit.

“Did you say Romulan sir?” Conrad repeated back.

“Yes, I did,” Stanton paused. “Jack, if we don’t make it back for whatever reason I want you to get off this rock quickly and tell Challenger what we’ve discovered about the Romulans. Do you understand my orders Ensign?”

Conrad didn’t answer at first. “Yes sir.”

“Good, we’ll keep you posted with updates. Stanton out.” And he tapped his chest button again and closed the channel. “Ready Sub Commander?” He asked T’Plau.

“Ready.” She flatly said with her tools in her hand to begin. “Please keep a close eye on the scanners.”

“Will do.” Stanton said. He looked to the communication officer. “Ned, you can pass up the tools.”

“Understood sir.” He replied as he knelt down to the side of T’Plau toolkit, poised ready to hand her up anything she wanted.

Steadily T’Plau approached the explosive device and began to take out the first part.

Secondmoon, Fesoan Lor’veln Year 463

Monday, April 27th, 2155

Mount Jaq, Docana

Thom had never imagined himself climbing what felt like the tallest mountain on the planet. Nevertheless, he eventually reached his destination. Once he got to the top, he took off his backpack and turned a full three-hundred and sixty degrees to take in the impressive view before him. From west he could see the rest of the large woodland areas and the caves where the colonists were hiding in and to the east he could see the burnt out remains of Lor’den. A massive crater sat in the middle of the once proud Andorian settlement. Smoke continued to rise from where the Malurians and Nausicaans had detonated a nuclear warhead.  There weren’t many buildings left standing, large chunks had been taken out of all of them and none of them had any of their windows. The thermo-nuclear blast had destroyed the moment it had happened. The sight made Thom feel sick inside, the idea that someone had the nerve to do that to others completely befuddled him. Yes, he was an officer in the Andorian military, but he never joined to aid in the conquest of another race. That was one thing he vowed never to let happen, he would use every ounce and his last breath to ensure that the Andorian people would never become a conquered nation. The Andorian Empire had a lot to offer the galaxy and it was proving that right now by joining the Coalition. That was something that Thom was pleased with. He firmly believed that they needed to ally themselves with others to remain strong and was still proud to have voted for Chancellor Margerit a couple of months ago. She was the woman that was going to lead their people to victory. 

Snapping out of his thoughts he bent down to take out what was in his rucksack and to carry out what he was here to do. Pulling out a large computer device he sat on the rock edge and switched the device on. He pressed a few more buttons and it activated and low whirring noise could be heard coming from it.  A minute later his antenna twitched. They were reacting to sensing someone or something coming through the bushes from where he had just come from. He looked up and saw the familiar face of Commander Anthi approaching him with two others.

“How’s it going Lieutenant?” She asked, clutching a disruptor rifle to her hip.

“I’ve been able to clear up the EM disruption we were dealing with, I’m attempting to hitch on to the Malurian frequencies, so we’re not detected.” He answered while carrying on with his work. 

“Understood, let me know when you’re done.” She responded and turned to the other two Andorian men with her. “You two take up points and keep a watch out for any enemy troops.” They nodded and left her side in opposite directions. It was very unlikely that they would encounter any Malurians or Nausicaans this far up in the mountains. Since their little raid on the remains of their outpost last night they had been able to gather valuable intelligence on the Malurians and Nausicaans. They had discovered that the Malurians were deploying the most troops on the ground compared to the Nausicaans who were rarely seen. They were also fortifying their positions in the locations they had planned to use as mining areas. They weren’t bothered in engaging those that had fled from the settlements, but their security was tight and those that they had taken as prisoners were being forced in to slavery. Commander Anthi knelt down behind a huge rock and checked the power cells of her rifle one more time. She looked over to where Thom sat; fiddling with the communication device they had recovered last night. He too was covering behind some rocks as he worked. The last three days she had come to trust the young man with his suggestions in dealing with their circumstances. If they got out of this mess, she would do whatever it took to ensure he got a promotion and a posting of his choice. 

“Got it!” He declared with a smug expression as the machine in his hands beeped a few times.

Anthi crawled over to him and plonked herself next to him to see his achievement. “Well done Lieutenant.” She praised.

“I’ve got a connection with the northern pole’s satellite. It seems to be fully operational and the only one left in the network.” He reported as he brought up the telemetry coming from it.

“Try and see if you can download everything it’s recorded since the attack.” Anthi ordered. 

“Already on it.” Thom replied as his hands danced quickly over the data-tablet he had connected to the communication array. He began reading what the satellite had logged. “As we imagined Commander, every settlement was hit with nuclear warheads and they’ve got ships all in orbit of the planet.”

“Okay,” Anthi remarked as she considered the information. “Can you get a scan of the entire star system? See if there are any friendly ships out there?”

Thom did as he was told and waited for the results to come back in. “The Malurians and Nausicaans have taken up an equatorial orbit of the planet, it must be the reason why they haven’t picked off this satellite. I suggest once we’ve got all the information, we need to place it in standby mode to ensure they don’t detect it. We may need it for later use.”

Anthi agreed with his idea. “Definitely. We may need to use it later if the Guard have yet been able to assemble a task force to help retake the planet.” Deep down she was hoping the homeworld had not forgotten them and she knew by looking at Thom he was thinking the same. “We’ll get out of here Thom; I promise you that.”

He smiled to show his courage. “Without a doubt, Commander.” His tablet beeped again at him and he looked back down at the results. “Long range sensors are picking up Andorian and Earth ships sitting on the far edge of the system.”

“That’s good news, but why aren’t they here?” Anthi rhetorically asked, she knew the satellite had its limits and there was no way they could work out why the task force was waiting. “Can we get a signal out to them?”

Thom hit a few buttons, bringing up the communication protocols. “It’s going to be tricky to conceal the signal and I’m not entirely sure it will make it all the way to them.”

“Let’s at least give it a try.” Anthi said. 

He nodded again and worked for a little while before speaking up. “Ready, what shall I say?”

“Something along the lines of there are survivors of the attack, requesting assistance in liberating the planet and an ETA on when they can help.” Anthi said she was trying to think of things that would be helpful to the fleet without revealing too much in case the enemy got their hands on their message.

Thom worked on the message; he encrypted it using a Human code he had learnt from Scor. He thought that it was possible the Malurian or Nausicaans had gotten their hands on Andorian encryption procedures so using an Earth one made sense when there were Starfleet ships in the task force. Thinking of Scor he shrank at the loss of his comrade. He had died instantly when the base had been attacked when his station had exploded in front of him. The image of his dead expression was still itched on the inside of Thom’s nightmares. Finally, he completed his work and said, “Done.”

“Now we wait.” Commander Anthi spoke as they both looked out at the landscape before them.

Shuttlepod One

Jack had re-pressurised the cabin of the shuttlepod so he could sit in it without having to wear his helmet. The landing party were still busy working on the Romulan mine. He wasn’t surprised that the mines were of Romulan origin, especially as they had detected the Romulan ship meeting secretly with the Malurians earlier on in the day. He was sitting still in the pilot’s chair; slowly he swung his chair from side to side due to his boredom. He had been sitting waiting for over three hours now. Starting to drum his fingers on the controls before him, Jack gave out a huge sigh in misery. The computer beside him bleeped at him and instantly he turned his attention to the screen. A puzzled expression unfolded on his face as the computer announced that the Shuttlepod’s communication receiver was downloading a message and was in the process of decrypting it. Instantly he tried to work out where it was coming from. There was no way Captain Burton or any of the other Starfleet captains would break radio silence. They knew how critical their mission was in succeeding by remaining quiet. Once the results were in, he was shocked to discover it came from the direction of Docana. Eventually the message appeared, and he read it. Automatically he pressed the button to his side to call Commander Stanton.

“Shuttlepod One to Commander Stanton.” He said.

Stanton’s voice came through the speakers. “Go ahead Jack.”

“Sir, we’ve just picked up an encrypted message from Docana.” He reported.

“What?” Stanton said, sharing in the pilot’s surprise at such a thing happening.

Conrad continued to explain what had happened. “It was secured by using Starfleet encryption protocols sir. I can’t get an exact spot from where it came from, but the message reads that there are survivors from the attack. They want to know when we are going to help them. Shall I respond?”

“Hold on Jack, we need to complete our work here. We’re almost done and once we are close enough, I’ll send Ned back to begin composing a message.” Stanton replied.

“Understood sir.” Conrad said, feeling a bit deflated he had to wait. “How much more do you have to do?”

“We’ve already deactivated the arming triggers; we’re now working on accessing the communications array. Standby.” Stanton said and then he closed the channel.

Jack looked back at the message. “Just hold out a bit longer, we’re coming.” He whispered to the screen, hoping that whoever sent it was able to wait for them.

Standing at the front of the MACO training room, Major Yu was briefing her unit on their upcoming mission. She had loaded a number of images into the presentation that would appear behind her on the large wall screen and held a remote-control clicker to advance the slides. “Ladies and Gents,” She started with, “This is Lor’den, the biggest settlement on Docana. It was the location of the colony’s administration.” A map and several photographs of the Andorian town appeared in the middle of the screen. Yu pressed the button on her remote and a sensor scan of the same location appeared. “However, this is the most recent and up to date scan that Commander Levesque has been able to get.” The image had a huge difference compared to the map it now overlapped. “As you can see the detonation of the nuclear warhead, almost central of Lor’den has created a blast crater that has almost covered the entire town. There isn’t much left, and the area is still flooded with radiation.”

“Which would mean if the Malurians and Nausicaans have an occupational force down there, they’re either in hazard suits or are located outside of the settlement out of the blast radius.” Staff Sergeant Iyer spoke up from the back row.

Yu didn’t mind Iyer speaking up on this occasion. She knew how eager her soldiers were to do something and when Commodore Burton ordered her to begin putting a plan together to send MACOs down to Docana to begin reconnaissance and possibly secure a foothold she was more than happy to put a plan together. “Exactly my thoughts too Rupesh.” She answered. “We still don’t know enough to determine what they’re up to and why they invaded the planet, but it will be our job to give Challenger and the fleet the intelligence it needs to take back the planet. With the high amount of nuclear radiation in the area and a number of natural interfering elements, sensor sweeps won’t give them an accurate picture.” 

“Also, if we discover any survivors, we should be able to secure them and hopefully help them to get off the planet.” First Lieutenant al-Fayyad added.

“Indeed.” Yu said, she wasn’t as confident as her deputy in finding anyone, she couldn’t imagine anyone surviving the brutal attack the Malurians and Nausicaans had unleashed on Docana. “We’ll have exactly six hours to get as much information before we need to return to the ship to prevent any of us becoming six from the radiation. Questions?” She looked around the room and saw that Second Lieutenant Luis Trommler had his hand up. “Go ahead lieutenant.”

“Ma’am, I hate to ask this but am I assuming with us all here that we are all going?” The young German officer asked.

Yu replied, “You assume correctly Mister Trommler.” She looked at all of their faces. This would be the first big unit operation they would have carried out since the ship’s launch. “Everyone will gear up and report to the transporter bay within half an hour. Once the Commodore gives us the word, we’re going.”

Another question, this time it was Private Jenkins who had his hand up. “Ma’am,” He said, sounding almost nervously. 

Yu liked the way the young British man said ma’am, unlike how Americans or Canadians said it; he would make it sound more like marm. She gestured for him to carry on speaking.

“If we’re all going, who is left to defend the ship?” Jenkins asked.

Yu placed her hands behind her as she walked towards where the Private sat next to Trommler, his squad leader. “The Armoury Department will do that. The Commodore wants us on the ground.” She looked around the room one more time and was satisfied they understood what they would be doing. “Alright people, you’re dismissed. Go get yourselves prepped.”

The entire MACO unit filed out of the room and into the locker room where they all began to put on their gear. Yu was the last one out and walked alongside her deputy. “Khawla, tell me do you think they’re ready for this?” She asked.

The Egyptian woman just smiled back at her leader. “They’ve been ready for ages Major; I promise you that!”

Yu returned the smile and followed the First Lieutenant to get her equipment together.

Almost twenty minutes later the entire MACO detachment was approaching the transporter bay. All of them were kitted out in their EVA suits and heavily armed. Commodore Burton stood nearby waiting for their arrival alongside Lieutenant Ben-Ami with her medical staff.

“Come to wish us farewell Commodore?” Yu asked in an almost cheery tone. Both of them knew what they would be undertaking, if all went to plan, would not be a joyful part of the mission.

Burton smiled awkwardly at her and the others behind her. “Something like that.” He returned before turning to look at the Israeli woman behind her. “The good doctor needs to inject you all with something that will help against the radiation, in particular stopping you all from getting sick quickly down there.”

Yu nodded in approval of what Ben-Ami was going to offer them. “Just in case the EVA suits fail us?” She asked, looking at the captain directly in the eyes as Ben-Ami injected her first with the medication into her neck.

“Something like that.” He repeated before extending hand towards her. “Good luck Major.” 

Taking his hand in her gloved one, Major Yu shook it. “Thank you, sir, and to you.”

Burton released his hand from Yu’s and looked at the men and women before him all dressed in MACO EVA suits. “I want to see you all back in one piece, understood?” He bellowed to them all.

“Aye Commodore!” They all shouted back and every single MACO saluted their commanding officer. Burton departed from there after returning the salute. 

Private Liam Jenkins watched as the Starfleet captain-recently turned commodore went his way away from them. Major Yu had told them all of Burton’s “promotion” to commodore however Burton had refused to change out of his captain’s uniform. Yu had said it had something to do with naval tradition, something he would learn more later on. His concentration was interrupted by the familiar touch of someone’s fingers on his neck. Instantly he smiled as he turned to see who it was. He wasn’t disappointed. “Hey.” He uttered to the blue eyes that met his dark brown ones.

Ensign Stewart gave him a half-hearted smile in reply. “Hi.” He added before lifting his other hand that contained the hypospray that he would be using to inject the soldiers with. “This will tingle a bit.” Stewart remarked as he pressed it against Jenkins’ neck.

Jenkins winced at the cold metallic feel against his skin as he inclined in and whispered in Stewart’s ear. “Wouldn’t be the first time you’ve given me a tingle.” He then leant back again and gave him a seductive wink.

Blushing at his boyfriend’s words, Stewart tilted to his right as he pulled something out of his leg pocket and pushed it into Jenkins’ free hand that wasn’t carrying his helmet. “Take this and promise me you’ll come back.”

Jenkins opened his hand and saw a silver medallion attached to a silver chain. He rubbed his thumb and index finger over it and noticed the embedded picture of Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travellers, instantly he recognised it as the one that his boyfriend wore all the time. It was his good luck charm; he had worn it since joining Starfleet. “I can’t take this Niall.” He quickly hissed. “Your brother gave you this.”

“Then you best not lose it, or Craig will be after you!” Stewart replied before kissing his beloved on the lips quickly and then moving on to the next person in the line. 

Jenkins just nodded and mouthed “I love you” to Stewart before moving away. He hadn’t been paying attention to where he was walking and straight away bumped into his team’s leader. He stopped and looked up at Second Lieutenant Trommler. “Whoops, sorry sir.”

“Pay attention to where you’re going next time, Jenkins.” Trommler remarked in his light German accent before seeing that the young private was holding something in his hands. “What’s that?”

“A good luck charm sir.” Jenkins nervously answered.

“From Ensign Stewart?” Trommler enquired.

“Yes sir.”

“Then you best wear it.” The lieutenant stated offering to help him put it on. “We’ll need all the luck in the universe.”

“Aye sir.” Jenkins responded as he turned around to let him put the chain on him. “Thank you, sir.” He said as Trommler finished.

Lloyd Burton walked away from his MACOs as they began their final preparations for their mission along the corridors of D deck. He couldn’t help feeling guilty in sending them into such a dangerous environment. He was placing all of their lives in danger. Every single MACO had a loved one that would end up blaming him if they returned to Earth in a casket draped over with the United Earth flag. Though his MACOs wouldn’t be the only ones that could end up in that state, he had an entire crew that could find themselves in similar situations. He shook his head as he tried to forget those thoughts. Madison had told him, after her first year in commanding Voyager, that she hated that type of decision making. She always felt she needed to find an alternative, she never felt that her first choice should be to send someone into harm’s way. There was always a better choice that she just had to find. 

Instead of taking a left towards the lift, Burton made a right and shortly found himself entering Engineering. After closing the large hatch door behind him he made his way over to his acting chief engineer, Lieutenant Masuko, who was standing on the reactor control platform alongside Ensign Metaxas. “Sakura, Theo please tell me you haven’t broken anything in Commander Stanton’s absence?” He called up to them.

The Japanese woman and Greek man both turned around to look down at them. Instantly Masuko climbed down to join her commanding officer and greeted him with a smile. “I promise you sir that Commander Stanton will be highly pleased with how well we’ve kept his engineering room tidy.”

“Excellent.” Burton said as he looked around the room.

Masuko followed Burton’s eye line, trying to figure out what he was looking for. “Was something you wanted sir?”

Burton shook his head. “No, nothing in particular lieutenant. Carry on.” He ordered before leaving her and engineering. He wanted to take one more glimpse around his ship as he had this god-awful feeling in his gut that was telling him something was going to go wrong. Eventually he walked away and entered the lift that would take him to the bridge.

Once the lift had arrived at its destination the door hadn’t finished opening when he heard someone shouting, “Commodore on the bridge!”

Everyone stood up to attention as he walked out and made his way to his chair. The bridge still didn’t feel completely right as it was missing a couple of key players: T’Plau at tactical and Hathaway at the helm. “As you were.” He ordered as he sat down and looked at his First Officer. “Anything Nicole?” He pleaded.

She shook her head. “Not yet sir, however they’ve still got a few more minutes.”

Burton turned his chair back to centre and faced the main screen, they needed to wait for Stanton’s team to send them the signal to come in and the clock was running out.

Shuttlepod One

Gradually piloting the small craft through the asteroid field, Ensign Conrad could feel his arm aching from how tight he was holding the joystick in front of him. His eyes were hurting too from the amount of concentration he had to do as well. Not only was he trying to avoid the asteroids but the mines as well. He was pretty pleased that the Romulans had not bothered to use their stealth technology to hide these mines as it would have made their mission a lot more difficult. 

“You’re doing great Jack.” Commander Stanton assured him from over his left shoulder.

“Thanks sir, just pull that trigger when you’re ready.” Conrad said.

“That would be an illogical action to take Ensign as it would most likely cause serious damage to the Shuttlepod and reduce our chances of surviving our return to Challenger.” T’Plau stated.

“I’m with the Sub Commander on that one.” Hennessey jumped in with.

The young pilot chuckled as he continued their journey home. He was still pondering over that message they had intercepted from Docana survivors. He hoped they were still alive. Then the proximity alarm went off.

“Oh, oh.” Stanton said as he read the screen in front of him.

“A Malurian cruiser is on an intercept course for us. We have been detected.” T’Plau announced as she quickly worked on her controls. “I am bringing up the minefield detonation sequence.”

“For what?” Stanton frantically asked.

T’Plau looked over at him. “The single-phase cannon on this craft will not be enough to defend us Commander from that craft. If we detonate the mines in their path, then we may have a chance of survival.”

“And get us caught in the shockwave too!” Stanton worriedly said back.

“Not if Ensign Conrad increases our speed to maximum and stays ahead of the blast radius.” T’Plau calmly replied.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence Sub Commander.” Conrad remarked. He took a breath. “Commander, she’s right we’ve got no choice in the matter. Our orders are to make a distraction and it seems like we will. We won’t be able to make it back to the ship from here, but I can plot a course towards Docana. If we’re lucky we’ll be able to land on the planet and await rescue from there if we take damage.”

Stanton paused for a moment, but Hennessey didn’t give him a chance to think quietly. “Again, I’m with the Sub Commander. Let’s blow them up!” The communications officer remarked. 

Stanton smirked at how trigger happy the communication officer was becoming. “Alright do it!” He ordered.

T’Plau nodded and sent the signal out.

Challenger NX-03

A single alarm went off by Levesque’s side. She looked up at Burton and nodded.

“Tactical alert!” Burton commanded, “Ensign Hathaway, take us in. Ensign Larsen, tell the fleet to follow us in.”

Two “Aye sirs” answered his orders and the ship moved on its way towards their plan. The ship jumped to warp for a couple of minutes and was surrounded by the combined Human-Andorian task force. 

“The Malurians are moving their forces towards the decoy, a number of mines have been detonated in the area. Perhaps more than we planned.” Levesque announced.

“What do you mean Nicole?” Burton asked as he held tightly on to his chair’s arms.

“The blast yields I’m detecting are twice the amount that we planned for.” She answered. “More mines have been set off.”

“Stanton must have a reason for it. Let’s hope they’ve survived it.” Burton said. “Status of the Malurian and Nausicaan ships?”

“It looks like apart from two cruisers remaining in orbit the rest have gone to investigate the decoy, but I can’t get a positive fix on those near to the asteroid belt. There’s too much interference from the minefield.” Levesque stated.

“And our gateway?” Burton asked, referring to the hole that Stanton was going to make for them.

She nodded as the sensors read another explosion in the spot they would be coming in from. “It’s just opened for us. We’re clear to enter.”

“Brilliant!” Burton exclaimed with a grin appearing on his face. “Ensign Hathaway, drop us out of warp and proceed under full impulse. Take us in!”

“Aye, aye commodore!” The Scottish pilot replied.

Imperial Bird-of-Prey ChR Dhivael

The Dhivael’s scanners were registering the entire chaos happening before them. T’Voras couldn’t believe his eyes, how the hell did the Malurians set off the minefield when they entered it to chase down the unidentified intruder? That question he decided had to remain unanswered for now as they analysed the situation and determined the best course of action. On the tactical readout before him he could see the entire Malurian-Nausicaan armada breaking orbit from Docana and heading towards the minefield. More mines were going off, meaning that ships were entering it. How the hell had they not seen them coming in?  T’Voras was certain the Andorsu devils had found a way past their sensors and were most likely trying to again, this time he was certain their Hevam allies would be with them. 

Another alarm went off and this time it indicated the detonation of another part of the minefield. Instantly he recognised what was going on. They had somehow been able to gain access to the controls of the minefield and were detonating one part as a decoy while detonating another part to allow their ships in. Furiously he slammed his fist down on the control.

“Morek, tell the Malurians and Nausicaans to fall back to Docana at once! They are being tricked!” He spat out.

The operation officer quickly shook his head. “I’m sorry Commander but the explosions are causing interference in getting a signal to the Malurian and the Nausicaan ships. We can’t reach them!”

Rage began to feel T’Voras’ veins, he wouldn’t be defeated like he was before. “Detonate the entire minefield!” He ordered.

Morek looked at him. “But sir the Malurian and Nausicaan ships are in there!”

“I know, but I won’t have an incoming Andorsu and Hevam fleet approach the planet! Do it!” T’Voras ordered in a last-ditch effort to desperately regain control of his victory.

Nodding in allegiance to his superior officer, Morek carried out his orders and sent out the signal to detonate the entire minefield.  Before he pressed the last command input his display board bleeped at him. “Sir sensors are picking up the starship Ch’lenjer leading a combined fleet. They’re coming out of the asteroid field now!”

“Then detonate those mines now!” T’Voras screamed.

Morek did as he was told and sent the last command.

Challenger NX-03

The ship rocked hard from one side to the next several times, knocking most of the crew off of their feet and crashing into the deck plate before them. Burton found himself laid flat on the floor of the bridge and quickly pushed himself up the moment he was able to. He looked up and saw everyone else doing the same as the ship calmed down. 

“We’re blind!” Levesque said as she crawled up and sat herself back at her station and read what her screen was saying. “Sensors are resetting but they detected a massive explosion. Looks like someone detonated the entire minefield!”

“It looks like the Malurians and Nausicaans got desperate and tried a final effort to stop us, Commodore.” Cortez remarked as she got back into her chair at tactical.

Burton tapped the button built into his chair’s arm. “Engineering report!”

“Ensign Metaxas here sir, we’re just trying to assess the damage now!” answered the Greek engineer.

“Where’s Lieutenant Masuko?” Burton called back.

“Lieutenant Masuko has been injured sir and is currently on her way to sickbay sir.” Metaxas came back with. “Sir we don’t have warp drive, but we do have impulse and tactical systems.”

“Good, get the warp drive back online Ensign.” Burton ordered as he closed the channel.

“I’ve got sensors.” Levesque said a second later. “Looks like the Malurians and Nausicaans have lost almost every single ship apart from those two still in orbit.” She read out. Then she paused. “Lloyd, the Apollo has lost its port nacelle. It’s heavily damaged and adrift.”

“Damn it!” Burton cursed. He looked over at Larsen at communications. “Erik, do we still have the comms?”

The Swede nodded. “Yes sir.”

“Then tell Captain Ramirez to secure the Apollo at once.” Burton ordered. He looked at Levesque. “What about the rest of the fleet?”

“It doesn’t look like the Andorians took such a beating compared to the Apollo.” Levesque conveyed as she carried on reading what the sensors were telling her. 

“Good, then we can move forward to Docana.” He told her as he looked back at the display in front of them. “Ensign Cortez ready all weapons. Prepare to fire on my command.”

“Aye sir!”

Imperial Bird-of-Prey ChR Dhivael

“You’ll pay for your treachery T’Voras!” Garos spat at his screen. “The deaths of so many of my people will haunt you for a lifetime!”

“Your empty threats are just that Garos! Get yourself out of here, I won’t have the Hevam or Andorsu capture you or anyone else and share our plans with them!” T’Voras stated. 

“You do not order me around T’Voras!” Garos threw back, his anger still remaining high.

“When the Romulan Star Empire invests into something then it becomes their property. Unfortunately, it would seem this transaction was a foolish one that had a short life expectancy.” T’Voras returned and then gestured for Morek to close the channel. The moment the main screen went dead he looked at his pilot. “Centurion Rarek, plot a course that places us above the colony.”

“Yes Commander.” Rarek responded.

“Decurion Selok,” T’Voras stated looking over at his female weapon’s officer. “Fire a spread of warheads against the colony. I don’t want a trace of them left on the planet.”

“At once Commander T’Voras.” She replied.

Challenger NX-03

“Sir I’m picking up another ship entering sensor range.” Cortez shouted from tactical. “It’s coming out of orbit below the planet’s southern pole.”

“Can we identify them?” Burton asked as he looked at his acting chief armoury officer. Dread entered his stomach and he hoped that it wasn’t any more Malurian or Nausicaan ships.

She gulped before answering. “Sir it’s a Romulan ship.”

“Lock weapons.” Burton automatically ordered and gave Levesque a quick glance, one that she returned. Both of them were reading each other’s thoughts, the Romulans were finally showing their faces in this incident and it would become public knowledge of their involvement.

Levesque went back to monitoring the situation. “Sir the Romulans are opening fire not at us but at the planet. It looks like they’re launching nuclear warheads!” She paused as she registered where the Romulans were aiming. “They’re targeting the settlements and other richer areas of resources.”

“What?” Burton quizzed, confused at what the Romulans were up to. As he said this he stood up. “Onscreen.” He commanded.

The image of the green hawkish ship appeared, as it launched volley after volley of missiles towards the planet. In the corner of the screen the mushroom clouds could be seen exploding across the planet’s landscape as they hit the ground below. The ship then stopped its assault before moving away as the final two Malurian ships began to chase after it. All three ships soon entered warp, with the Romulans in high speed attempting to flee the Malurians.

“What the hell just happened there?” Burton asked out aloud. Where the Romulans helping the Malurians and Nausicaans? Or were they taking advantage of the situation of the defenceless Andorian world? 

“I don’t know sir, but they’ve gone.” Levesque finally answered him as her sensors told her the aggressors could no longer be seen.

Burton just shook his head in dismay as he continued to watch the devastation develop on Docana as the Romulan strike with nuclear warheads continued to spread. The Romulans truly didn’t want the Andorians to have their planet back.

“Ensign!” T’Plau shouted over the commotion, trying to grab Conrad’s attention just for a slight second.

“I see it.” He responded as he shoved the small craft into a spin to avoid the cliff edge they were passing over. The shuttlepod was shuddering under the pressure of it finally passing through the Docanan atmosphere and was now on a downward trajectory before it pulled itself apart from the pressures it had just endured. Ensign Conrad was doing his best to keep the craft together so they could find a suitable place to land the ship. After they escaped the blast radius of the mines and miraculously avoided the enemy ships, the four of them had decided to head to the planet and attempt to make contact with the Andorian survivors that had sent a message which Conrad had intercepted. It seemed like the best idea at the time as there was no way they would be able to rendezvous with the Earth-Andorian task force with so many enemy ships near to them. Hennessey had been able to track the origin of the transmission to a nearby mountain range. Conrad had flown them down towards it and they weren’t that far now from their destination. That’s if they made it.

Another explosion pulsated behind Conrad’s right ear, almost deafening him. Commander Stanton reacted by cursing at the craft as he dealt with the small fire that erupted from it. “Hold it together Jack!” The chief engineer commanded.

“I’m trying sir.” Conrad said as he tightened his grip around the joystick in a vain attempt that his grasp would help.

“We have lost sensors!” T’Plau reported as she attempted to get the computer she was sat at to work with no apparent luck.

“Damn it!” Stanton cursed again as he returned to his seat to T’Plau’s left. “I’m redirecting whatever energy we’ve got to thrusters. We need to slow down our descent Jack!”

“I’m on it!” The young pilot said as he kept doing his best to slow them down.

Based on the location of the transmission and our current velocity I would say we are less than a kilometre to the target.” T’Plau added.

“Then set us down Jack.” Stanton ordered before looking over to his shoulder at the communication officer behind him. “Ned, can you try and send a message to the Andorians, see if they’re still listening.”

“I can’t.” Hennessey said, shaking his head. “The communication array is down.”

“The landing gear is not responding either.” Conrad added, “Everyone hang on!”

The shuttlepod flew across the tops of several trees before Conrad aimed its direction into a slight nosedive as he headed them towards a small clearing that would just allow them to land with some room. Like a bird hunting for its prey, the shuttlepod swooped down and hit the ground with a mighty thud. Unlike the bird hunting, the shuttlepod would not be returning to the skies anytime soon as it smashed across the large grass area before crashing into a few bushes and finally wedging itself in between two very large trees. 

Ensign Conrad lifted his head up and sighed with relief at knowing they made it down. “We’re down.” He turned around to look at his fellow officers. They too look relieved, even T’Plau, that they had survived that turmoil. 

Stanton thumped a few controls, “Looks like the computer is down. I might be able to repair it once we get it back to Challenger.” He looked at everyone else. “You all okay?” He realised he should have checked on them first and was pleased when he received a round of acknowledgements that they were fine. “Okay let’s get out of these EVA suits, into something a bit more comfortable and take what we need to survive out here. There’s no point in us staying here.”

“Agreed.” T’Plau said. “Tactically speaking we are still in enemy occupied territory. I suggest we attempt to find Ensign Conrad’s Andorian friends and stay with them.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Stanton agreed. 

Soon the landing party were back in their normal uniforms, wearing their field jackets and carrying backpacks with all the gear that would help them survive on the planet until they were rescued. 

Hennessey was pulling out the shuttlepod emergency communication device when he noticed that T’Plau had paused where she stood in the middle of the woodlands. She held in her hands her Vulcan designed scanner and she had been tasked in trying to determine the direction they needed to take to find the Andorians. “Something wrong Sub Commander?” The communication officer queried.

T’Plau brought her scanner back down from its position in mid-air and turned to look at the Human man. “The metallic alloy in the rocks and nearby mountains is limiting my scanner’s range. I am unable to scan anything beyond two hundred meters.”

“Frustrating.” Hennessey stated.

“Indeed.” T’Plau countered back with a raised eyebrow, a sign of her possible frustration as she put her scanner back in to the satchel in her belt.

Commander Stanton climbed out of the shuttlepod’s right side door and saw his crewmates all waiting for him. “Have we been able to determine the direction we need to head?”

“If the coordinates that Ensign Hennessey was able to work out are correct then we need to head that way.” Spoke Conrad with his own Starfleet scanner in his hand and pointing in the direction where T’Plau was standing. Where he was gesturing was past the clearing in the woodlands and towards the tip of the mountain. It looked like one of the tallest; thankfully they had landed on the side of it. 

“Okay.” Stanton said as he pulled on his rucksack that contained everything he would need for their stay, including his own engineering kit. He wasn’t prepared to leave that one behind. “If the Commodore finds the shuttlepod then I’ve left an encrypted message telling him what we planned to do. Hopefully no-one else will read the message.” Stanton said he knew it was risky that the Malurian or Nausicaan patrols could find the small craft and attempt to access its damaged computer. So, to confuse them he left the message that read: Gone hunting for pink skin. He hoped that Burton or Levesque would make the connection and realise they had gone to find the Andorians based on the racist nickname that most Andorians called Humans.  “Let’s get moving then.” He instructed his team. 

For the three Starfleet men the hike they were currently on brought back memories of their expedition training they had taken. Ensign Conrad was at the front of the group, sharing his experience. “The instructor was this fierce Scottish woman, I can’t remember her name now, but she pushed us through the Peak District in the harshest British winters. I hated it.”

Chuckling of the recollection, Hennessey spoke up. “Mine was a weekend training session in Yosemite Park.”

“Just a weekend?” Conrad reacted in disbelief at the injustice. “I swear the one-year crash course in officer training is unfair to those of us who have to do the full four years at Starfleet Training Command.”

Stanton, who had been walking at the back alongside T’Plau, laughed at the younger man’s words. “Hennessey may have only done a year’s training Jack but don’t forget he has more performance reviews every year for the next two years then the rest of us who did the full four years.”

“I suppose there’s a silver lining with that.” Conrad remarked, now feeling a bit smug he wasn’t under the same scrutiny as his fellow officer.

“Silver lining?” T’Plau enquired towards Stanton.

“It’s another old Earth idiom.” He explained. “It comes from the saying: ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. It literally means that in any bad situation you will always find some good.” 

“An interesting phrase.” She returned before stopping in her tracks and began frowning.

Stanton noticed her paused expression and stopped walking to look at her “Sub Commander?” He asked, wondering if she was okay. The other two ahead also stopped and turned to see what was happening.

“I heard an explosion.” She shared.

“I didn’t hear anything.” Conrad said.

“Vulcans have better hearing than Humans.” Hennessey retorted.

T’Plau looked over her shoulder. “Again, another one.” She stated and winced her eyes into the far distance. “Several in fact.”

“Should we keep going?” Stanton asked.

T’Plau nodded. “I believe that will be the best thing at the moment.”

“Perhaps once we get to the top, we’ll be able to see what is happening?” Conrad offered as the group continued with their hike.

Once they reached a peak the group stopped as T’Plau indicated again she could hear a series of explosions. The ground shook beneath their feet. 

“I’m definitely not thinking the Sub Commander has gone crazy.” Conrad quipped as he held on to a nearby boulder. 

Stanton squinted his eyes as he saw something in the distance. “There!” He shouted and pointed at whatever it was.

“I see it.” Hennessey said as he shielded his eyes with his left hand just above his eye to cut out the sunlight beaming on them.

“What is-” T’Plau was stopped from asking her question when another explosion nearer to them and all four officers went deadly silent as the large plum of fire and smoke erupted.

“Was that a…” Stanton started.

“…nuclear explosion. Yes, it was Commander.” T’Plau finished. She turned her head one more time as she heard something from behind them as the ground shook again from the nearby explosion. “Commander.” She said calmly as she indicated to get his attention to what was behind them.

Stanton looked over his shoulder and when he realised what the armoury officer was indicating at, he completely turned around. By this time the other two men had done the same thing. “Greetings.” Stanton said, “I’m Commander Michael Stanton from the Earth ship Challenger.”

The four Andorians, three men and one woman, all lowered their weapons that they had aimed at their visitors. The woman stepped forward, obviously the leader of the group, “I’m Commander Anthi of the Imperial Guard.”

Stanton found it hard to believe the group before him were soldiers of the Andorian Empire’s military, especially as none of them were in the typical Imperial Guard uniforms and were all looking dirty and extremely tired. “A pleasure to meet you Commander, we’re part of the joint task force sent by our governments to come and rescue the colony.”

Anthi nodded in acknowledgement that she believed his words. “It’s good to see our message got through.” She looked at one of them men to her right before looking back at them. 

“Are you the ones who sent the message about survivors and asking when help would arrive?” T’Plau asked.

“We are.” The man who Anthi had looked at spoke.

“This is Lieutenant Thom, my second-in-command.” Anthi said, introducing him. “This is Zareth and Shon.” She added gesturing towards the other two.

“This is Sub Commander T’Plau,” Stanton returned motioning towards the female officer, “And this is Ensigns Hennessey and Conrad.” He paused, “In fact you owe Ensign Conrad for intercepting your message.”

“The survivors of Docana thank you Ensign Conrad.” Thom said and bowed his head slightly at the pilot.

“You’re welcome.” Conrad said, slightly blushing at the gratitude he received.

“I’m afraid these pleasantries will need to wait.” Anthi commented as she signalled for them to look back at what was happening behind the Starfleet group. “Thermonuclear warheads are being detonated across the planet. We need to get out of here. How far away is your ship?”

“Our shuttlepod was damaged.” T’Plau flatley answered. “If we can find some shelter and re-establish communication contact with our ship than I believe one of our ships will be able to rescue us.”

Anthi took a deep breath in, the news that they wouldn’t be leaving yet obviously disappointed her. “The caves we and the rest of the survivors are hiding in, aren’t too far and will be able to protect us from the nuclear blasts.” 

“Good, then please lead the way Commander.” Stanton said, trying to give her a warm friendly smile.

“This way,” She indicated towards the route she and her fellow Andorians had taken. She stopped walking and turned to Stanton and the others, “I forgot to say welcome to Docana.” She then carried on walking with her visitors following her and the others.

Tuesday, April 28th, 2155

Challenger NX-03

“Captain’s, star log April Twenty-Eighth, Twenty-One-Fifty-Five. Operation: Jericho has been a success. How one measures that success is another matter. The Malurians and Nausicaans have been driven off from Docana however the liberation of the planet has come with a high price. The Romulan nuclear attack destroyed the remains of the four main settlements as well as a number of enriched areas of valuable resources that would have made the colony an extreme benefit to the Andorian Empire. Nuclear radiation now blankets over half of the planet, infecting almost anything that is organic and slowly killing it. As such the Andorians are now rushing to find as many survivors as possible to rescue off the planet however their efforts are being met with poor results. We on the other hand are making repairs while searching for our missing crewmates. Commander Levesque believes she has detected the ion trail from Shuttlepod One entering the planet’s atmosphere however we are unable to confirm if it is their trail or not. Meanwhile the Intrepid and Apollo have both left the system with the Apollo being towed by an Andorian cruiser. Chancellor Margeri, to show her gratitude for our help, has agreed for both ships to be taken to the nearest Andorian repair facility to be fixed so they can return to Earth for a full refit. She has also invited Challenger to make a similar stop over, something I am considering once we are warp capable. On another note I’m pleased to say that my temporary appointment to a Commodore has now ended and I am able to return to my regular duties as just a starship captain. If you can call them regular.”

“Make sure you purge that manifold before we begin the start-up routine!” Lieutenant Masuko bellowed from the upper section of main engineering. 

Captain Burton had not expected to hear his second engineer have such a loud booming voice, especially with all the noise that currently engulfed engineering as various repairs were being undertaken. He looked up towards where he heard the woman’s voice. “Lieutenant, how are we doing?”

Masuko gave out a sigh at her own personal frustration that she wouldn’t be able to tell the captain any good news. “I’m afraid sir that we’re still having issues with the plasma injectors. I’m sorry.” She said as she almost ran down the flight of stairs towards her superior officer.

“Don’t be sorry Sakura, you’ve done an excellent job in keeping us together in Commander Stanton’s absence. I’m glad you’re back on your feet. Commander Levesque tells me that we’re ahead of schedule with the other repairs.” Burton said, trying to assure her that he wasn’t disappointed with her in any way.

“We are, apart from the warp drive, every other damaged system should be up and running by this evening.” She said with a bit more pride in her voice at their achievement. “Have we been able to find Commander Stanton and the others yet?”

Burton shook his head. “No not yet but we’re not giving up on them yet. At least with the warp drive offline it’s giving time for us to search for them.”

“Well I promise you sir I’m not stalling to give you extra time, but I can if you want me too?” Masuko asked.

“Just carry on Lieutenant.” Burton replied and placed his right hand on her shoulder for assurance. “Keep me posted.” He added as he made his way out of engineering. 

“Aye sir!” She said as she watched him leave before returning to her work.

Frustration was starting to overwhelm Commander Levesque now. Her current task of trying to get through the obstructions of not just the nuclear radiation in the atmosphere of Docana but also the natural interference from the planet was making her job in finding their colleagues difficult.  She was sat at the head of the table console in the situation room, aft of the main compartment of the bridge, with Ensign Cortez and Petty Officer Nikolai Kastrovich. With the Second Armoury Officer and her Chief Astrophysicist, the First Officer was hoping they would be able to hunt down three Human life-signs and a Vulcan. How wrong she was. The three of them had been working on this for almost an entire day now with only a few breaks in between their work to sleep and eat. 

“This isn’t working.” Cortez said out of frustration as she stepped away from the console and began to play with her wedding ring.

Kastrovich, who remained seated on his stool to Levesque’s right, remained posed looking over the information before them. “Dis is starting to annoy me as vell.” He added in his distinct Russian accent. 

Levesque placed the tablet she had in her hands down on the table and rubbed her temple. She shared her comrade’s annoyance at how difficult their task was, but she wasn’t prepared to give up. “Maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way?” She said.

“Is there another way to look at it?” Cortez asked as she returned to her own stool next to Kastrovich’s. 

“How about you search for the shuttlepod first?” The familiar voice of Captain Burton interjected.

The group looked up and saw their commanding officer, who had just got off from the lift and was now leaning against the wall where the ship’s dedication plaque hanged. “That’s not a bad idea actually sir.” Cortez said. “The search parameters would be more refined than our current ones.”

“And if ve find that first…” Kastrovich began.

“…then we may find our missing crew.” Levesque completed with the Russian’s train of thought. She looked up at Burton and smiled in gratitude. “Thank you, sir.”

“No problems.” He answered as he moved to join the group. “Let me give you a hand, it’ll help stop me from asking Lieutenant Masuko when will the warp core be up and running again!”

Exiting the confines of the decontamination chamber, Private Jenkins gave out a quiet tiresome moan as he followed the rest of his team out.

“You’re all clear of any contaminants.” Ro-fa Ben-Ami announced over the intercom. “But please report to sickbay once you are dressed for a full scan.”

Jenkins walked over to the locker room where a new uniform waited for him as the one he had taken off after returning to the ship was thrown away for possibly being harmful to him and his shipmates. Once he had his undershirt on along with his combat khakis, he left the locker room and strolled to sickbay.  As he entered the medical facility, he instantly sat on one of the beds and was met by the Chief Medical Officer.

 “Welcome back Private.” Ben-Ami said with a warm smile as she scanned the MACO soldier. 

“Thanks.” He said quietly. He was close to exhaustion and was looking to have the rest of the day off. His team had spent almost nine hours on the planet and had almost reached their ten-hour stint when the Captain recalled the entire team, wanting to prevent them from being exposed to any radiation. He looked around the room to see if his boyfriend was on duty and was surprised to see he wasn’t there.

Ben-Ami picked up on the Private’s disappointment. “He’s on one of the Andorian ships helping with the survivors.” She whispered in his ear.

Jenkins smiled at the thought of his other half being selfless and wanting to help others out. “When is he due back?”

The doctor looked over to the wall where a digital-clock readout was located. “In another hour or so.” Ben-Ami answered from her calculations. “Although Shuttlepod Two is in high demand at the moment with Shuttlepod One still missing, so he may be late.”

“Oh okay,” Jenkins said, frowning he couldn’t see Niall. “How come Shuttlepods Three and Four haven’t been used?”

“Engineering is too busy to get them up and running, they’ve had their hands full with repairs and we still aren’t warp operational.” She answered.

Jenkins nodded to show his understanding. “How’s Lieutenant Trommler doing?”

“He’s fine.” She answered, still smiling. “He’s resting in his quarters. You were very quick to pick up on his symptoms.”

“He turned a very unusual shade of grey.” Jenkins stated as Ben-Ami almost finished her scans of him. 

“Nonsense Private, you diagnosed his radiation sickness a lot quicker than others would have and knowing what you MACOs are like with your tough stance he would have carried on.” Ben-Ami said as she paused to look at the young soldier. “I’ve told Major Yu how proud she should be of you; I know I certainly am and I’m not the only medical officer on board who thinks that. Your quick reaction to get him transported back on board saved his life. If he had carried on wearing that damaged EVA suit, he would no longer be able to wear that uniform.”

Jenkins blushed at her words of encouragement. “Thanks.” He just said in response.

“I’ll make a Doctor out of you yet!” She said in an attempt to lighten the mood. She then leaned in, “And I won’t repeat what Niall said about how proud he is of his boyfriend.” She added with a cheeky wink and then stood up straight to check the results of the scan.

Jenkins blushed again in embarrassment.  His love life was becoming a gossiping point between the crew, he was starting to resent it slightly. “Am I okay?”

Ben-Ami nodded. “You’re perfectly fine but you need to be off your feet for the next eleven hours. Go take a shower, grab something to eat and drink then sleep it off before you’re back on duty.”

Pleased at the good news, Jenkins jumped off his bed. “Thanks Ro-fa.” He said as began heading towards the sickbay doors.

“Oh,” Ben-Ami called out to him. “Major Yu and First Lieutenant al-Fayyad wanted to see you. I believe they’re in the Major’s office.”

Jenkins had stalled in his footsteps as he listened to the doctor’s words. He nodded in thanks for her sharing the message to him and made his way to see his superior officers.

Nervously he tapped the chime to Major Yu’s office and waited for the response on the other side for him to come in. Once it was granted by his leader, Jenkins entered the room once the door opened for him. “I was told to report to you at once by Ro-fa Ben-Ami.” He stated once the door was closed behind him.

Major Yu was sitting at her desk, while First Lieutenant al-Fayyad was sitting on the small grey leather sofa on the opposite wall to her. The Major stood up as Jenkins had walked in. “At ease Private and welcome back.” She said with a smirk. 

“Thank you, ma’am.” He answered back as he slightly slouched in the way he stood.

“Now I know you’ve only just returned and I expect to receive a report on what happened on Docana by tomorrow afternoon, in the meantime both the Lieutenant and I,” She said indicating between her and al-Fayyad, “have been discussing your performance and with your reaction to what happened with Second Lieutenant Trommler.”

“Oh?” Jenkins wondered if he had done something wrong with the tone Yu was taking.

“Liam, I said at ease.” Yu reminded him. Once he seemed calmer, she carried on. “We know how hard you’ve been working Liam and we feel we need to recognise that.”

Al-Fayyad spoke up then. “You’re working hard to complete your medical training and your training results are exceptional Private. Staff Sergeant Iyer can’t sing your praises enough and neither can I.”

Once again Jenkins found himself blushing at the encouragement he was receiving. “Thank you.” He said to both women.

“We also know how eager you are to begin your officer’s training Liam.” Yu remarked as she poured herself a cup of coffee and took a sip from it. Jenkins had not noticed that beforehand both women had mugs in their hands. Yu held up an empty mug to him now. “Coffee, tea?” She offered before carrying on with her train of thought.

“No thank you ma’am.” He declined with.

Yu continued, “So we feel that after today’s situation especially how well you took command of your fellow teammates in Trommler’s absence, that it’s only right we award you with the promotion to Corporal.” Yu stepped forward and pulled out the rank chevrons for corporal. “We know it’s a jump above Lance Corporal but we both feel you deserve it.” She handed him the chevrons.

“Umm…thank you so much.” Jenkins said as he took the new rank. “I don’t know what else to say.”

Both MACO women smiled at his reaction. “You can repay us by carrying on with your amazing effort and considering taking the officer’s training under our tutelage.” al-Fayyad returned.

“Officer’s training? But don’t I have to do that back on Earth?” Jenkins asked, surprised he was being given such an opportunity.

Yu shook her head. “No. Regulations allow for a unit, like ours, which is far from headquarters to train its own unit including undertaking officer’s training if authorised.” She took a sip from her coffee. “You’ll be in training for a year and a half but if it’s what you want to do then we’re more than happy to support you Corporal.”

Jenkins smiled at their kindness. “I really do appreciate that.”

“Well go rest and think about the offer. You don’t have to give us an answer yet, we’re both happy to wait for you when you’re ready.” Yu said as she returned to sit in her chair.

“Thank you.” Jenkins said once again.

Yu chuckled, “Liam go take a break, you deserve that at least and we’ll celebrate your promotion tomorrow. I know Captain Burton will want to speak to you at some point too.”

Jenkins just nodded and soon left Yu’s office with a huge grin across his face.

Secondmoon, Fesoan Lor’veln Year 463

Wednesday, April 30th, 2155

Mount Jaq, Docana

Sub Commander T’Plau found herself finally being able to meditate quietly in a secluded area away from the main cavern where the rest of the survivors were hiding in. She had made a few fires around her to keep herself warm but to also use the flames as points of concentration. Their nakedness had been able to help her empty her mind of all thoughts so she could relax. Her and the others had spent almost three days with the Andorians now. In that time, she had been assisting those who needed medical attention, with the limited training she had, as well as assisting Ensign Hennessey and Lieutenant Thom fix the emergency communication beacon. Their efforts on the latter had been futile due to the fact they had been unable to get a communication frequency past the nuclear radiation that now enveloped the planet’s atmosphere. Commander Stanton had volunteered to go and try repair the shuttlepod however the radiation exposure would eventually kill him and anyone else that went out of the caves without an EVA suit on. For now, the caves protected them from the harsh environment that existed beyond.

“Sub Commander.” Stanton whispered from behind her.

She opened one eye at first and to determine she wasn’t hallucinating before opening the other. She slowly turned around to see the engineer standing with a torch in his hand, aiming it towards the ground where she sat. “Commander Stanton.” She said, “Is everything okay?”

He responded with a big grin, “You could say something like that, if you don’t mind placing your meditation on hold for the moment.”

She inclined her head to accept his terms and stood up from the dusty floor. She walked by his side to exit the small dwelling she was using and soon they followed the small path that returned them to main cavern, or the grotto as Ensign Conrad had nicknamed it. T’Plau was surprised to see new additions to their group standing in the centre talking to Ensigns Conrad and Hennessey along with Commander Anthi and Lieutenant Thom. Standing there in Starfleet EVA suits were Captain Burton, Commander Levesque, Major Yu and Ro-fa Ben-Ami along six other MACOs. 

“It’s good to see you Sub Commander.” Burton said as he walked towards them with a friendly smile.

“It is agreeable to see you as well sir.” T’Plau responded and looked at the others. “All of you in fact.”

T’Plau looked around the grotto and had noticed a number of others in similar environmental suits, all of them being Andorians were helping the colonists. “How did you find us through all the interference?” She finally asked Captain Burton.

“We isolated the shuttlepod’s hull signature and then once we finally found it on foot, we discovered you were all gone. However, Commander Levesque and I decrypted Commander Stanton’s message about hunting, and we found the intercepted message you took from Commander Anthi. We hypothesised if anyone was hiding from the Malurians and Nausicaans near to the shuttle then it would be in one of the caves. We spent the last day searching every single cave until we refined the search a bit further to ones that would be able to protect you from the radiation and the rest as they say is history.” Burton explained.

T’Plau looked at Stanton who instantly picked up on her wanting to know what the captain meant with that last idiom. He gave her a look that said he would explain later. She looked back at her fellow officers. “I assume then the Malurians and Nausicaans have left Docana.”

“They and the Romulans.” Levesque answered.

“Romulans?” Stanton quizzed. “So, you saw them as well?”

“Oh, we did.” Burton said. “They were the ones who launched the last volley of nuclear warheads at the planet. In fact, apart from two ships, the entire Malurian and Nausicaan invasion force was wiped out by the Romulans.”

“The minefield was Romulan in origin.” T’Plau said.

“We picked up on that fact when they were able to detonate the entire minefield, especially as they were the ones who made them. As I said the bulk of the invasion force was destroyed when that happened.” Burton told.

“So, are we at war Captain?” Commander Anthi now asked. She had remained quiet since T’Plau and Stanton’s arrival.

“Currently I’m not sure what the outcomes are politically but when I spoke with Chancellor Margerit she said the Andorian Parliament will be holding some serious talks to discuss the situation.” He replied. “Prime Minister Samuels said the same would be happening back on Earth.”

“It doesn’t make sense though, why did the Romulans attack the planet?” Conrad queried.

“As we suspected, all along there was no way the Malurian and Nausicaan governments were actually involved in this. In fact, the Malurian government is denying any knowledge of what happened here and if the Vulcan Diplomatic Corp is able to get anything from the Nausicaans I’m sure they’ll say the same thing.” Burton answered.

“Plausible deniability.” Hennessey said.

“No not actually, we’re almost certain those that attacked the colony were mercenaries for hire.” Levesque countered. “Hence why it was a combined Malurian and Nausicaan attack force and not solely one or the other. Their ships were of various sizes, configurations and differed in age. There’s no way their criminal organisations could fund such an operation without a wealthy external sponsor.”

“The Romulans.” Anthi said as she began to put all the pieces together in her mind.

“That’s our belief. The Romulans were able to mine the asteroid field without you seeing them.” Burton described. “Then by sending in the Malurians and Nausicaans they were hoping to divert the focus of your government’s retaliation away from them. Docana is also a rich planet filled with natural resources that would greatly help the Empire once the colony was fully up and running with its own mining facilities.”

“So, I suppose the Romulans paid the Malurians and Nausicaans off by saying they could keep the planet and all of its resources and in return they just had to attack it?” Thom summarised. “And with the minefield in place they may have been able to hold the planet for some time.”

Burton nodded, “That’s what we believe happened. When a bulk of the Andorian fleet was crippled in our initial attempt to breach the asteroid field, we came to the conclusion that was how they planned to fortify their position.”

“Did we lose many ships?” Anthi asked.

“A few I’m afraid.” Burton solemnly said. “However, as I’m sure you’ve been able to work out, we were able to get past it and arrive here to assist those that were left.”

“Well Captain Burton it looks like we owe you and your crew a debt of gratitude for helping us out.” Commander Anthi remarked. “Thank you.”

Smiling at the two Andorians, Burton returned the gesture. “It’s what the Coalition is about, standing shoulder to shoulder in difficult times.”

“Well I don’t know about any of you lot,” Stanton said looking at T’Plau, Conrad and Hennessey, “but I’m more than happy to return to Challenger for a decent meal, a hot shower and a comfortable bed to rest in.” He looked at the Andorian leader, “That’s not to say we haven’t appreciated your hospitality Anthi.”

“You’re more than welcome Michael.” She said with a warm smile to her new Human friend, “However I assume the planet is being completely evacuated?” Anthi asked Burton who just answered with another nod. “Next time you’re on Andoria make sure you all find us,” She said looking at Thom and then back to the Starfleet crew, “And we will treat you to a round of Andorian ale.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea to me.” Conrad said to everyone.

“An Andorian transport is waiting to take us back. Let’s help you gather your gear and get out of here.” Burton ordered his crew.

Littlejohn didn’t like it. She didn’t appreciate that sometimes being a politician meant having to do such things that she found herself in right now. She was sitting uncomfortably behind her desk in her office as she shared a call with the Andorian Chancellor. The two world leaders were debating over the recent Docana incident and how best to respond to it.

“I appreciate what you’re saying Madam Chancellor, but can you seriously say that revealing to everyone what happened would be beneficial?” She threw back at her as their discussion continued to heat up. 

A sigh could be heard from Margerit’s end. Unfortunately, due to a severe snowstorm on Andoria they were unable to engage in a face-to-face conversation over subspace. Instead they were forced to speak over a secured audio channel. “Madam President, you are asking me to hide the fact that a ruthless enemy has attacked one of our worlds and mutilated our sovereignty. Place yourself in my situation, if this had been Vega would you do the same if I was asking you to cover up the identity of the true aggressors?”

The President looked at the others in her office. Sat around the room was Prime Minister Samuels, her Chief of Staff, members from her cabinet and Admirals Hathaway and Gardner. He grimaced at the fact it could have been Earth and its Commonwealth in the situation the Andorian Empire now found itself.  “I would hope Madam Chancellor that you would be a good enough friend to me to remind me of my responsibilities as a leader and not to allow mass public panic to settle in if news reached them that an ally had been attacked by a neighbouring nation that we had yet to see. On top of that I would expect you to tell me that my actions would not only have a drastic impact on my people but those we were allies with.” She paused. “Neither of our fleets are ready to face war Chancellor. Your losses at Docana alone have placed the Andorian Imperial Guard in a bad situation and there’s no way Starfleet could take on the Romulan fleet alone. We’ve seen what their drone ships can do to our ships and if they’ve mined more systems then we need to work together to deal with it. Please, Chancellor, let us plan our response to the Romulans carefully.”

“So, you agree we need to do something?” She finally said back to him. 

Littlejohn looked briefly at everyone in the room. Knowing that half of them were reluctant to take military action. “I do but I don’t think we are in a good position yet. We need to plan carefully and make sure we are truly ready for it. If we go public with this then we won’t be in a strong position both politically and militarily.”

“Very well then Madam President.” Margerit finally gave in. “We will continue this discussion at our summit on Babel later this month, in the meantime let us rebuild and review what has happened here.”

Littlejohn’s relief was clearly showing now. “Thank you, Madam Chancellor, and yes I look forward to seeing you in Babel soon.”

“Farewell Madam President.” She said, signalling she wanted to end their conversation.

“Goodbye Chancellor.” Littlejohn said and then tapped the button on her inbuilt desk computer to close the channel. She looked at everyone in the room. They all remained silent and just stared at her for a moment.

Clearing her throat, Secretary Madilyn Campbell spoke. “So, where do we go from here?”

“Isn’t it clear Madilyn?” Prime Minister Samuels replied. “We begin preparing for a possible war with the Romulans.”

Deputy Prime Minister Malik, who was sitting on the other side of Samuels in her own chair, appeared to deflate at his words. “Sir you can’t be serious about this?”

Samuels nodded and looked to Littlejohn for affirmation.

“I don’t like it either, but Nathan is right. I cannot see how we can avoid it, we are now on a warpath.” Littlejohn remarked and looked over at everyone. “Let’s begin putting plans together.”

“Madam President, I must protest-” started Deputy Prime Minister Malik, but she was interrupted by another strong female voice in the room. 

“I’m pretty certain the Commander-in-Chief of the United Earth’s forces has just issued an order, Madam Deputy Prime Minister.” Admiral Hathaway said from where she sat on one of the sofas. Her irritation at the politician’s lack of support for their leader clearly came through the way she spoke. 

The Indian woman turned to look at the older British flag officer. “The Earth Commonwealth is not in any position to wage war against another nation state, especially one that has yet to reveal their faces to us.”

“We’re not waging war yet Kalinda.” Defence Secretary Stark stated from where he stood at the side of the room. “But preparing for war does mean we are heading down that road.”

“I think we need to remind ourselves of one thing.” Home Secretary Haroun al-Rashid uttered from where he sat next to Campbell. The entire room’s attention fell on him now. “We didn’t start this, they did.”

“And if what we’ve seen at Docana is any indication of their resolve then we need to be prepared for the worse.” Admiral Gardner added.

Littlejohn now sat up in her chair and placed her hands together on her desk. “We’ve got just under three weeks before the summit at Babel, by that time I want the entire Commonwealth to be in a strong position. So, where do we start?” She asked them all.

Thirdmoon, Fesoan Lor’veln Year 463

Laikan, Andoria

Chancellor Margerit sipped on her glass of Andorian ale as she looked out at the arctic winds sweeping across the cliff face that held up her mansion. Something about the patterns they were causing in the sky made them almost hypnotic. She wasn’t paying attention as such to hear the doors to her office open. Her mind was still going over her recent conversation she had with Earth’s leader. Lydia Littlejohn was quite the politician she thought to herself. She made a Tellerite look tamed in her opinion. She found herself feeling frustrated at having to give in to the Human’s request and hold off on taking any military action against the Romulans. After the call had ended, she had sent out from her office her advisors and the other senior government officials. She wanted time to collect her thoughts. She wasn’t going to let the Romulans get away with it, but she knew she needed to keep the Humans close to her if they were to do anything. 

“Ma’am?” Lieutenant Carenth said, trying to get her attention from where she stood at the doorway. 

Margerit released herself from her staring and turned around in her chair to look at the woman who was second in charge of her protection. “Yes Carenth?” She answered.

“Commander Anthi is here to see you.”

“Yes, send her in.” She said, a small smile crept across her face, as she had begun to formulate a plan in her head, and she knew what she had to do first.

Wednesday, May 21st, 2155

Challenger NX-03

It was getting late into the evening and after the crew had thrown him a surprise birthday party; Captain Burton was pleased to finally head to his quarters to sleep before he had to report for duty the next morning. He had just entered his quarters and was scanning through the latest round of messages that were waiting for him. He had a number of birthday messages from his family, the recent one being from his sister. Burton was about to open it when the intercom went off.

“Bridge to Captain Burton.” Spoke Ensign Larsen over the channel.

Burton pressed the button on his desk to respond. “Go ahead Erik.”

“Sir, you have an incoming call from Andoria on a secured channel.” Larsen stated.

At that news Burton sat at the chair behind his small desk in the corner of his room. “Transfer it to my quarters Ensign.” He ordered. Moments later the screen activated. He was pleasantly surprised to see the Andorian leader before him. “Chancellor Margerit, this is a pleasant surprise.”

Margerit smiled at him. “Captain Burton it is good to see you again and I believe it is Human custom to wish you a happy birthday today?” She said.

He smiled at her attempt. “Thank you, Madam Chancellor.” Burton hated the fact he was reminded of how old he was getting, Levesque and Stanton had both made remarks earlier in the day about him losing his youth. 

“I know it’s been almost a month since we last spoke and with the Docana incident being classified I haven’t been able to get back in contact with you.” She said, starting to get on why she had called him.

The Human captain frowned on the inside at the reminder that once again the Romulans involvement in something had been classified to avoid a public panic and the possibility of war being declared, nevertheless almost every Starfleet captain believed they were on the fringe of war with the faceless aggressors. “It’s understandable that you’ve been busy ma’am.”

“Even so I know we both share a joint frustration over the need for us to hide what truly happened there.” She said, hinting at the same thing that Burton was thinking about. The cover up of the Romulans’ involvement had been a hard one to digest. However, it was easier to share with the public that Malurian and Nausicaan mercenaries had banded together to try and take Docana’s resources, but the joint Andorian-Human task force was able to stop them. The evidence of the Romulan mines and their attack were covered up and evidence now stated that the Malurians and Nausicaans had mined the system, undetected, and had attacked the planet in a last-ditch effort before they retreated. “That all said I wanted to inform you of some news, I’ve decided to follow in your footsteps to a certain degree.”

“Oh?” Burton said, curious to know what she meant.

“We’ve just launched a brand-new ship; I’ve named it the Avenkerev.”

Burton smiled at the sentiment of her choice in its name, “I’m sure General Ghelev would value that.” He said referring to her fallen friend who commanded the previous ship named that.

The Chancellor smiled at his words. “I believe she would have. The new Avenkerev will be assigned to exploratory missions, just like Challenger and will be commanded by Commander Anthi.”

“That’s excellent news to hear!” Burton said pleased to hear that the senior Andorian officer they had saved from Docana was being rewarded for her efforts.

“I thought you would appreciate that news, I have also ordered Commander Anthi with the task to begin exploring in space not so far away from you.”

“Well I look forward to running into her.” Burton returned.

“I’m sure you will but I wanted you to know that as we’ve said before Andoria owes you and your crew a debt of gratitude for your help, so the Avenkerev will be nearby to help you if you ever need it.” Margerit said.

“I appreciate the gesture Madam Chancellor.” Burton said. “Perhaps we can do some more joint operations but ones that don’t involve firing any weapons?”

Margerit chuckled at that. “Safe travels to you and your crew Captain.” Margerit said, signalling the end of their conversation.

“Thank you again for calling Madam Chancellor.”

“Margerit out.” And she closed the channel. 

Burton sighed as he leant back in his chair and wondered why Margerit called him to tell him about Anthi’s new assignment. It just seemed bizarre. He even found how calm and content the Andorian leader was; especially over the fact they had to keep the whole Romulan aggression a secret. An unusual way to end my birthday celebrations he thought before deciding it was time to call it a night and go to bed. For tomorrow Challenger was going to carry on its current mission of exploration, something he was finally happy to be doing.