Hanging dark against the pallor of his face, the skin beneath Torden’s eyes was a sunken navy blue. He exhaled, slumped into a corner seat of the officer’s mess. His antennae drooped towards the raktajino like boughs of an Earth willow stooping towards a river’s edge. 

He’d seen those trees, silhouetted against real sunlight, leaves flitting with a gentle hiss back and forth as summer air flowed along with the water below. Back at the Academy a whole delicious host of Earth’s vibrant greens and dense life had surrounded him. Even on board the G’Mat there had been new planets to survey, uncountable life forms of every biostructure imaginable. He was thrust into wild and varied scenes from mountains puncturing stratospheres to oceans pressurised enough to crush even the strongest duranium submersibles. Then they were at warp again, on to the next system, the next civilisation; the next life.

It was late. 0200 hours. The spotless metal table stretched before him, and the fluorescence of the lights shone spectral over his already cold features. Black space was all that stared back at him through the large viewport, and he cast his eyes back across the mess. A few night owls littered the room. They kept to themselves. Some stared grim-faced down the barrels of their own beverages, sipping quietly, engrossed in PADDs. The soothing hum of the starbase’s environmental systems was also the sound of an invisible barrier between them all. No small talk on the graveyard shift. 

Torden exhaled through his nostrils. The upward dance of coffee vapours fluttered as the airflow changed. Now two hours into a week’s shore leave, he had no more of a clue on how to spend it then he did when he was forced to apply. “You look like death warmed up, Lieutenant,” Commander Batbayar had said. And then he was here. 

He couldn’t leave, of course. The usual destinations; Bethsemet, Frentor, Risa, all seemed somehow distasteful to him now. Even a return to the Dirfaan tundras of Indarax would give him no rest. He thought for a moment of the steady, thick snowflakes of home. It was all that fell upon him there. There were no reconnaissance reports, ship movements or combat readiness evaluations. There were no log transcripts of desperate captains and demoralised crew. There were no hollow faces traipsing back through airlock doors.

Here, instead of snow, endless data rained down. The computers could only do so much to sort it. Strategies and plans changed by the minute. Every new development sparked a new frenzy of simulations and projections. 311 destroyed at Chin’toka. Ships and lives hypothecated as collateral for the objectives drawn up. It sickened his soul. Pushing paper in the business of death from behind a pristine desk. Request after request for transfer to starship service denied. 

He pushed the mug away. A few black droplets splashed over its edge. Starbase 104, read the lettering, emblazoned bold against the chrome under a Starfleet arrowhead. The humans said that war was hell. Torden supposed this place was his. Yet now he chose to stay. Partly from fear, partly from guilt, it didn’t matter. They were the many, and he was the few. 

Cooper has been roaming around the station trying to pinpoint the power consumption increase. It wasn’t a big deal, as per her calculations, the power generator in the cavern is more than capable of recharging what is used up, but it was an unexpected and likely an unscheduled operation that someone is doing without authorization. On the matter of the power generator in said cavern from that really awesome moment…the room as it is now with such a speedy construction and reinforcement with forcefields, is not being reinforced with more plating, so that way they can shut the forcefield generators down to conserve more power and have them there as back up in case…well, in case the bugs start hitting the fan.

Her tricorder updated to a new location of where the source was coming from, which lead her to the main engineering section of the station, which was probably the first thing she should of expected. She looked around to see the staff just doing normal work, until her eyes laid on Lieutenant Beck and his new companion, Dotty, a DOT from the Starfleet Corps of Engineers ship. Since those two were here, she knew they were up to something, so it was time to investigate while she headed right for them. “So are you two the reason for the increase in power consumption?”

Beck looked up from whatever the device it is that he was working on and smiled. “Hey there, lass! Ah…possibly, and most likely will be using up more power. But I’ve done my calculations, I won’t be using too much.” He explained before going back to the large, circular shaped device.

“Mind explaining what you’re making there, sir? I mean, for Chief Operations sake of the station.”

Beck looked up at her again with an even bigger smile. “Me and Dotty here are creating large holographic emitters.”

Cooper raised her brow, “Really? For what purpose?”

“Well, we have no doubt that the Breen knows we are here but I want to make them think we abandoned the station by using these holographic emitters to hide the base entirely. Make it so that this asteroid is nothing but an asteroid.” He explained.

Cooper frowned, “But the asteroid would be in the very same spot where this base is, wouldn’t they just figure it out?”

Beck shrugged his shoulders, “Possibly but I’m looking into alternative ways to make it more difficult for the Breen to find us.”

“I think it is a brilliant idea.” The voice behind Cooper made her jump, spin around and glare really hard at the person only to see that it was the First Officer, Lieutenant Jones.

“Holy crap, where did you come from?” She asked.

Jones turned and pointed at the door, the same door she came through. “Even if the Breen happens to know where the base is, these emitters will at least hide the Altai when she is docked with the station, so in turn they would believe that the Altai is either out on patrol or on some other task and that the station is defenseless. Element of surprise would be in our favor if the Breen ever decided to pay a visit.”

She shook her head and looked back at Beck. “So why’s Dotty here?” She asked.

Beck chuckled softly, “She is here learning. She is recording every move I make in making this emitter, so that way she can do the same on her own. Once I am finished, she will be able to make more emitters at a faster rate.”

Cooper sighed. “Oh well. At least I found where the extra energy consumption was coming from. Thought we had a short or something.” She then looked to Jones. “I assume you didn’t come down here just to see Beck’s progress?”

Jones chuckled, “Actually I did. He asked me about it before he began working on it.”

“Oh.” She said.

“And I just about…got it.” He put his tool down and pressed a button that activated the emitter. Suddenly the entire room was warped into nothing but a white space. “Well…it’s not connected to the grid, nor is it receiving any commands of what to project so…”

Cooper rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Just fix it please, before someone stumbles somewhere that would be very bad for them.”

Beck pressed the button and the emitter went offline, thus the white space warped back to normal interior of the engineering bay. “There we are.” He then looked to Dotty. “How about it, lass? Think you got it?”

Dotty looked to him then the emitter and then back at him before nodding its head and making a sound of joy. It then took off only to return few minutes later with a large crate full of parts, only to start making several more emitters at an incredible rate.

“And of course, as soon as she is done making the amount we need, she already has the designated locations of where to install the emitters and she will do just that so we don’t have to send anyone out on an EV suit adventure.” Beck explained, smiling as he watched Dotty work.

Cooper just sighed some and threw up her hands. “All right. At least I know where the extra power consumption was coming from, I’m going back to work. Lots of stuff to do.”

Beck chuckled and raised a brow at her. “Someone burn your coffee this morning, lass?”

Cooper raised her brows and pursed her lips. “Funny you should say that, because yes! The goddamn replicators that the Starfleet Corps of Engineers installed had gone and burned my coffee. I mean, they’re not even gone for what…a few weeks…and stuff is already breaking down?”

“Conflict with Breen technology?” Jones asked.

Cooper threw up her hands again. “I don’t know! There shouldn’t be any conflicting issues. I mean, we all checked the configurations and ran several dozen diagnostics to confirm that Starfleet and Breen technology was integrated successfully and yet here we are, food replicators burning shit.”

Beck chuckled, “Ya sure ya didn’t forget to reset the replicating parameters?”

Cooper looked and glared at Beck before pointing a finger at him. “You’re not funny. And I’ve wasted enough time here when I should be working.” With that, she stormed off, but not without grabbing a tool kit.

“It is rather concerning that equipment that the Engineering Corps is already breaking down.” Jones told Beck.

Beck just shrugged his shoulders, “Who’s to say that they were given brand new equipment? Starfleet has the tendency to scrap down anything old and refurbish and restore anything that they can put back into use. You know, recycling. We recycle just about everything now. I wouldn’t doubt that some of the equipment that the Corps installed are put together with parts as old as my grandfather.”

Jones snorted, “That would explain a few things.”

“Oh don’t get me wrong, sir. Starfleet is good on making sure things work up to spec, but when it comes to communicating with other technology, eh…tends to get wonky.” Beck explained before he saw that Dotty was finished making all the emitters required. “Oh sweet. Want to come along, sir?” He asked as he placed the emitters into a crate on a hover lift, only to grab it and started to head out. “Come along, Dotty.”

“Sure, why not.” Jones followed right behind Beck.

“So if you don’t mind me asking, sir. But what’s a former intelligence officer doing out here?” Beck asked.

“Over heard that did ya? Or read my file?” Jones asked.

Beck shrugged his shoulders. “Little of both. I like to know who I’m working for.”

Jones smirked, “Broadening my experience and skillset. Maybe I want to be a Captain some day, maybe an Admiral. Can’t be either one if I’m always working alone.”

“Did you prefer working alone?” Beck asked as they entered the lift, Beck pressing a button after Jones entered the lift with him.

Jones shrugged his shoulders, “Was something I was used to. Made the job easier most of the time. No one to rely on, but also you don’t have the responsibility of others but your own. I couldn’t see myself leading a team or being part of one and losing someone on a job that I can easily do by myself.”

Beck nodded his head. “I suppose so. I mean, I could maintain the Altai all by myself. But then I wouldn’t get any sleep.” He chuckled.

Jones smirked and shook his head, “That’s different, Chief.”

“Is it now?” Beck asked. “But let’s just put a pin in that.” The lift doors split open and the two gentlemen walked towards an airlock where Dotty took the emitters, hovered into the airlock and Beck began the decompression sequence after sealing the inner hatch. Once complete, the outer hatch opened and Dotty went to work installing the emitters. “So tell me, Lieutenant.” Beck turned to face Jones. “What kind of solo missions did you do?”

Jones raised his brows as one came to mind, “Well…”

“Are you sure about this, Lieutenant?” Asked the Commander.

“Yes, sir! I’ll be fine alone! It’s better this way. The job is to get in undetected and remain undetected. One person has a higher probability of staying undetected than multiple people. And this your ship, your crew. This is my mission, my responsibility. I will not let you risk the lives of your crew by bringing me in and risk being attacked by these Klingon bandits in the Archanis Sector.” Jones explained as he had checked his equipment and began to strap himself in.

“My ship, my rules, Lieutenant. Besides, those drop pods are not entirely safe.”

“Safe enough for the job. And unfortunate for you, sir, Starfleet Intelligence has authority over this mission and so do I. Deploy the pod.”

“Fine, Lieutenant. But we will do our best to deliver supplies on a monthly basis per mission parameters.”

“You do that.” Jones finished strapping himself in the pod and hit the button that sealed the hatch. He then gave the Commander a thumbs up and the Commander returned the gesture after he was given the signal from the Bridge that they had just dropped out of warp. The Commander then hit the button on his end, which opened the outer hatch, deployed the pod and activated it’s navigational systems, thrusters and engines, propelling the pod at great velocity towards the planet. Jones watched as the Akira Class starship, the name of the ship he has already forgotten, immediately pulled a one-eighty and jumped back to warp.

Transporters were out of the question, as the energy signature would have been detected by sensors on the planet and by orbital platforms. Same with a shuttle craft. No, a drop pod, completely covered in cloaking panels and sensor reflectors was the only option Jones had to avoid detection. But it wasn’t going to be fun, because half the time these pods failed entry of a planet’s atmosphere. It didn’t matter if the pods were configured correctly to different types of atmospheres before deployment, it was mostly because the airbrake system would either fail, deploy too early or too late, deploy and snap off from the sheer pressure and the thruster breaking system would be forced to engage for safety reasons but increase the risk of detection. Plus it was a very bumpy ride, as the pod now was entering the planet’s thick atmosphere and Jones was already getting warnings from the terminal above his head indicating the airbraking system was malfunctioning.

Then there’s the fact that inertia dampers were mediocre, the g-forces and the struggle to get his hand over to the terminal was real. He needed to reset the system quickly or the airbrakes will deploy late and the thrusters will fire to prevent a fatal crash, which is something he really needed to avoid to remain undetected. Once he finally got his finger over the reset button he pressed it, and he kept pressing it until the system finally stopped saying malfunction and deployed. Just in time too, because once the pod’s speed reduced to a safe velocity, three parachutes deployed and brought the vehicle to a slow descent into the forest. Or at least…that’s what they were suppose to do, but they didn’t deploy at all. One last safety feature, the system detected a likely crash at a rough velocity and deployed the airbags inside the pod itself to ‘reduce’ the impact for him, which didn’t do so well when the tip of the pod nose dived into the ground in between several trees before tipping over and landed on its side.

The hatch was then ejected from the pod via an emergency ejection, of which Jones had activated, before the man pulled himself out of the pod and tumbled over onto the ground, panting heavily. He laid there on his back, staring up at what he could see for a night sky through the branches and leaves, as he caught his breath. “I hate these things.”

Jones cleared his throat and looked directly at Beck. “If I told you, son. I’d have to wipe your memory.”

Beck chuckled, “And here I thought you were going to say ‘kill me.'”

Jones shrugged his shoulders, “If the memory wipe failed, then yes. You’re body would likely be found in a maintenance shaft and be seen as an accident.”

Beck laughed before shaking his head. “I am going to enjoy working with you, Lieutenant. I bet.”

Jones smirked, “If this holographic system you plan on setting up to hide the station and the Altai when docked…then I think I will enjoy working with you too, Lieutenant.”

Beck smiled, “Oh it’ll work. We’ve already installed several yesterday. These are just the last dozen that we needed to install before activating the system.”

“And the power drain won’t be severe?” Jones asked.

Beck shook his head. “Nah. That reactor down below is generating more power than we thought. It’s one of those, got to warm up a bit to pump out the juice, kind of generators.”

Jones shook his head, “And that’s Breen technology?”

Beck shrugged. “I suppose so. None of us has much understanding of it.” Beck’s commbadge started to go off and he tapped it. “Dotty is finished!” He smiled and then they see Dotty returning to the airlock, where Beck starts the sequence again but vice versa. Then he pulls out his red padd from his back pocket. “All right. Here goes nothing.” He said as his index finger pressed one single command. On the inside, they couldn’t see anything happening but on the outside…the entire visibility of the station and the docked Altai have become nothing but a rock face identical to the rest of the asteroid.

“Is it on?” Jones asked.

Beck looked at his padd then showed it to Jones. “Sure is!”

“What if there are working crew outside the perimeter?” Jones asked.

“They would of received a notification. We thought up of everything, Lieutenant. No one will be caught by surprise by this except for maybe our Commanding Officer.” Beck grinned.

Jones shook his head with a chuckled, “Well you better hope he likes it, because if he does, I’m taking the credit of approving it. If he doesn’t, it’s all on you pal.”

Beck chuckled, “Of course it is. But come on, let’s get to the Operations Center and see if we got the Breen surprised or curious.”

“Or if the Commander going to chew you out.” Jones added.

The time for morning briefing has arrived. Jones was waiting at where one would consider to be a lounge of sorts, something that was spruced together by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Jones and Beck were really the first ones to be there, since Beck had just finished his little holographic ‘screen’ that was now essentially hiding them. This was basically an opportunity for them to let everyone know about this new feature and how it will be handled in accordance of safety. But this was also a chance to get an understanding of where all the departments are at currently. They were just settling in to their new home on this station, and it was important to make sure everyone was accommodated.

“Lieutenant Jones, Beck,” Streth called out by way of greeting as he entered the briefing room. He sat down at the head of rectangular table, placing a steaming mug of jestral tea down in front of him.

Jones smiled, “Morning, Commander.” He said before taking a sip of his coffee.

“Mr. Beck, I’m looking forward to hearing about these defensive improvements,” Streth recalled the reports submitted to him only the previous day, “I’ve never seen holo-camouflage successfully deployed in the field before. Aligning the emitters and shield generators to create that masking effect is a stroke of genius, what gave you the idea?”

Beck chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “Came to me in a dream, sir. Really. I remembered reading up on previous attempts and I took their work, modified some calculations, Dotty pretty much did most of the work to be honest with that super computer brain of theirs. Then we ran some simulations, everything pretty much checked out. Although right now it is still very much in practice, we have yet to see if it will truly work. Don’t suppose you would mind if I borrowed the Altai and launch a couple photon torpedoes into the barrier?” He joked.

“Hah,” Streth snorted, “I have to say, Beck, I’m confident enough in your work without it needing to undergo the two torpedo test. As fun as that might be.”

Astrid entered the briefing room looking completely exhausted.  She cradled a cup of coffee as she made her way to the far side of the room not wanting to engage in idle conversation.  She wasn’t a morning person,  and it took a while for her to get into the groove of the day.

Similarly, the other member of the Hazard Team had ducked his enormous alien head beneath the entrance and wandered slowly and peacefully over towards his leader, his heavy footfalls causing a bobbing smoke trail behind him from the cigar in mouth, an increasingly common sight when Magara was around – he had seemed sluggish and drowsy – though his sagged dromedarian face always appeared at least a little tired, with droopy eyebrows and floppy flanges. The Akh had adorned his head in a simple, ragged blue dumalla – with tassles hanging off the sides “The Black-Sun does not dawn easily” he noted, bringing up a small, joking smile – having become accustomed to the coffee-culture so prevalent amongst humanoids.

Dr. Randall sighed as he pulled on his uniform jacket and checked his chronometer. He was still in his quarters,  and dreading this briefing.  He hated them.  He always figured he could get the same value out of a memo without the massive time drain that came with these things.  Especially since there’s always that one officer who wouldn’t shut the hell up with questions and comments. Which, of course prolonged the torment.

He turned to the sleeping area of his quarters to see Dr. Michelle Ortiz sitting on the edge of the bed brushing her dark brown hair.  “Why don’t you come along?”

“To the briefing?” She asked incredulously.

“Yeah, why not?”

“Because I’m not the Chief Science officer that’s why.”

“Right now you are the only science officer on the station,” he said logically.  “Someone ought to sit in on the briefing for the department.”

She sighed, “Okay.”

The duo entered the lounge a few minutes later. Randall gave the command team a polite nod. They made their way to a pair of seats at the center of the room. Seated, they spoke silently between themselves patiently waiting for the briefing to start..

Streth hadn’t seen the Doctor since the parasite’s extraction from Vogler’s leg. He was glad of it. Glad too that they had seemingly seen the last of the bugs above the caverns.

Cooper was the last to arrive to the briefing, even though she was a Chief Petty Officer, she was the Chief of Operations for the station and she intend to hear every detail in case her and her team need to make some adjustments.

Jones clapped his hands together. “Now that everyone has arrived, allow me to do the honors.” He pointed to Streth in regards of taking over the briefing and to Beck in regards to the new fancy upgrade. “First and foremost, I want to show everyone this.” He tapped a few buttons on the little padd in the table and a holographic three-dee image of the station and the asteroid it was home to appeared in the center. “Our Chief Engineer and his little DOT have constructed and implanted holographic emitters in key positions outside of the station to simply do this.” One tap of a button and the visual appearance of the station was replaced with nothing but rock. “Even if the Breen were to remember where this station once was, hiding it is still a crucial part of our mission. The less we are seen, the better. Plus, the Breen may not be the only ones out there that we are observing. So making it where it is difficult to find us, is a plus.”

Beck then cleared his throat. “I also went and repurposed some abandoned crew quarters, just a couple of them really. This station was designed to have a larger compliment than we currently have, so I took a couple empty crew quarters and installed a couple more auxiliary generators for the extra shield generator that I also had installed.”

This was news to Jones, as much as this was news to everyone else. “Explain, Chief.”

Beck stood up and took over the holo image on his side with a few commands. “Let’s put it this way. We have our primary shielding that protects the station and the rocky surface of the asteroid in which the station was built into. But what if that shield were to go down? What stops enemy weapons from just shimmering through our holographic screen and hitting the hull of the station? Or worse, a viewport, causing major decompression.”

Jones nodded his head. “Go on.”

“Basically the second shield generator I personally programmed to envelope an extra layer of shielding exactly where the holographic screen reaches or ends, however you wish to word it. I also programmed the emitters to work with the second shield generator so that when the system detects an impact on the shield itself, the emitters will then project a weapon to asteroid rocky surface contact to imitate that the weapon from the enemy vessel hit a rocky surface and not a shield barrier.” Beck explained. “Plus with this secondary shield protecting our most vulnerable side of the station, it gives us more than enough time to get to the Altai and to any other small crafts we have to either evacuate or retaliate, if possible.”

Jones nodded his head once more. “All right. There you have it, folks.”

“How does the Altai and small crafts return when the holo-screen is up?” Cooper asked.

“I had Dotty here place a beacon, programed in a secured, encrypted frequency, which was already programmed into the Altai‘s computer systems and the small crafts that we have. Basically, once a craft enters the proximity, the beacon will then transmit to the craft, whether via viewscreen of a Bridge, or display screen on a terminal, and will basically reveal the station itself behind the screen. Once you pass through the screen though, you won’t even need the beacon anymore, you’ll see the station and flying wouldn’t be any difficult. But it would give everyone reason to slow down and not come in at full impulse.” Beck explained.

“I’m sold.” Said Cooper as she settled back into her seat.

“Very impressive work, Mr. Beck,” Streth added.

Jones clapped his hands together once more. “All right, so now that we got that out of the way. I would like to know how everyone is settling in and how your departments are going? Any hiccups? Anything missing? Whatever it is that we may need to send a list to Starfleet along with a steady shipment of supplies every now and then.”

Randall cleared his throat, “We may have to suffer through a short period of more primitive medicine,  but I have requisition forms for the needed equipment filled out and should be sitting on the XO’s desk as we speak.  Once we get that we’ll be on par with any star base in the fleet.”

“Hazard Team is recouping,  but we are ready for any immediate action.  I plan to use the holodeck on the Altai to get regular trainings in.  Also with permission I think some zero-G and EVA experience would be beneficial to the team as well.”

Michelle looked up shocked at being addressed,  “Uh… sir.  All is good as far as I know.”

Beck shook his head, “Nah. Engineering is all set to go.”

“Operations is fine here as well. For now anyways.” Cooper shrugged her shoulders.

Streth nodded, “Excellent. This rock is starting to feel like home already.” He took a moment to survey the table, sensing that his was an opinion not shared by all, “One other thing, Beck. Ensign Ortiz I’d like to get your thoughts on this too. The spider we picked up when we arrived; any more leads on what it might be? Anything pertinent?”

Beck leaned forward, pressed a few buttons on the table panel on his side and changed the holo display to the spider. “We analyzed the data and it appears to be Breen in origin but we discovered that the spider acquired the Breen operating system. My hypothesis is that, maybe this buggard got on board a Breen vessel, tapped into their computer core like it had tried to do to ours, and downloaded their data. Probably even copied it, including the Breen user interface, text, language, everything. If it had tapped into our computer core, and I got into it then, we would be seeing an exact copy of our data, LCARs, etcetera.” Beck then handed it off to Ortiz.

Michelle shifted uncomfortably in her seat not prepared to give a full scientific dissertation to the senior staff.  She collected her thoughts for a few moments and then started, “I think this is a case of convergent evolution… or whatever the technological equivalent is, but it seems to operate similarly as the Borg. At least in its  modus operandi.  And like the Borg it takes the most beneficial technology and discards the rest. I also analyzed the data logs. I apologize,  computer science isn’t my field, but I think it sent out a sub-space signal before it was disabled.”

Jones raised his brows. “That does not bode well.”

A shiver ran down Streth’s spine at the mention of the Borg; probably the name he least wanted to hear at this particular moment, in this particular place.

D’vaid had been in ops his life as a Yeoman was not glamorous and sometimes the Captain didn’t call on him. He was just meandering through ops doing the little bit of work he could. The time currently had little to no work for him and secretly he felt excluded from meetings and events, but he shrugged it off. He was about to level the ops room when alarms started blaring. He looked back “What’s going on?”

“Uhh Sir, we have a Breen Dreadnought that just dropped out of hyperspace.” the lieutenant replied. 

D’vaid’s eyes widened and he went on a full sprint towards the briefing room before bursting through the doors. “Sorry…for…the…interruption.” he said completely out of breath. “A Breen Dreadnought just dropped out of hyperspace,”

“What?” Mouth agape, Streth could hardly believe the words that were coming from the shaken yeoman. There were a few moments of stunned silence until, “Red alert!” The base’s alert klaxon sounded in a low pitched burr. 

Astrid stood up immediately.  She looked over at Magara,  “Get the team suited up and ready to deploy.   I’ll be down once I know more.”

Magara slowly nodded his large head- a little bit of ash from his cigar falling down onto the floor “It shall be done, Black-Sun” 

Beck and Cooper looked at each other before they got up and bolted out the room, headed straight for Ops.

Jones shrugged his shoulders. “Dismissed, I guess.” He smirked and looked at Streth before he gestured to the door. “Sir.” He then made his way to Ops as well.

Soon as everyone had arrived at Ops, Jones looked at the sensor display to see the Dreadnought on long range. “Is she in range to bring it up on screen?”

“Coming in now.” Cooper replied as she tapped a few commands and the large display screen on the wall came to life to show the warship.

“Well. Ain’t she lovely.” Said Jones. “What is their status?” He looked to Beck.

Beck shook his head, “Shields and weapons do not appear to be online nor armed. Power emissions seem to be off as well. It’s hard to tell from here.”

Jones stroked his chin while he stared at the warship on screen. “Ortiz, any lifesigns on board?”

“Still too far out for accurate readings,  but I am not reading any life signs at the moment,” Michelle reported.

Jones frowned, “Possible. Very possible. Is the holo-camo still active?”

Beck nodded his head. “It is. But like I said, they may just know where the base is if the remember the coordinates from last time they built it and operated it.”

“That may be true then, since there trajectory appears to be straight for us.” Said Cooper.

“The warship is coming to a stop,” Michelle announced her fingers flying over the science station panel.

Jones frowned and looked at Ortiz. “They stopped? Engine troubles?” He then looked to Beck.

Beck sighed, “Not that I can see. I think we may need to get in closer. They’re still within our long range.”

Jones sighed and finally looked at Streth. “Looks like we will have to take the Altai out to it, sir.”

“Agreed.” Streth looked on, his expression leaden. “Streth to all hands,” his voice was transmitted throughout the base, “all personnel not assigned to essential base operations are to transport to the Altai at once.” 

Astrid left the meeting heading for the Hazard Team facilities.  She looked around at her team, “Okay folks,  we have a situation brewing. Hopefully it fizzles out to nothing,  but let’s be ready for worst case scenario.  Magara,  I know you lead Bravo Team, but I want you with me on Alpha.  Chief Sagura you will lead Bravo, and you need to be on ready-five.  I don’t want to commit the entire team to a big nothing sandwich,  but after what we went through to secure this station I am ready to prepare for the worst. Full kit people.  We’re going in like we are after an entire battalion.  Magara, bring extra charges with you.  I would hate for you to run out in the middle of a fire fight. Okay move out and meet me at the Altai in five minutes.”

“This one shall ensure this fate will come to pass, The Black-Sun’s command is respected. Magara has always been well prepared for any firefight – destruction is at the will of this one. The Chief is capable enough to lead the Team of Bravo.” he spoke, his baritone voice not belying any thought of fear nor panic. The great beast of an alien turned, and moved off towards his kit- to prepare himself for the potential coming battle, something which he had yearned for since his days among the Warherd of Akh Prime.

Astrid approached Magera and patted him on the shoulder.  “Thanks Brown-Tree,” she said just loud enough for them to hear.  Then she headed to her office to change into her hazard suit. She hoped her services wouldn’t be needed,  but she had a bad feeling about this.

A casual drink among friends had turned into a pointed conversation, Kaksos loved to poke the bear. He grinned with a sideways glance towards Van der Luan. He acted confused while saying, “Amboo Jootsoo? What’s so ultimate about that?” He really hoped “Stern Streth” took the bait.

Streth sighed and took a sip of the green synthehol pooled in the wide-bottomed glass. The ice clattered as he lowered it to the table. Oblivious to Kaksos’ smirk, “Anbo-jytusu.”

He corrected before asking in earnest, “The All-Federation Tournament? Probably the most attended martial arts tournament in the known galaxy outside the Klingon Empire? You’re asking me what it is?” He grew incredulous, “In your near-century of existence, how has this passed you by, Kaksos?”

“Must not be so spectacular really then by that logic…”

“That’s where you all get together, chain each other up then, then run around with icepicks?” Van Der Luan asked innocently, taking a sip of his Kummel and joining in baiting the Captain.

Kaksos kept the chuckle from his voice, keeping the bit alive, “Was it the one with the Lirpa, or the one with gigantic cotton swabs and funny blindfolds? Perhaps the poisoned gloves and ropes course one?”

Van Der Luan tried not to cough into his drink “Gigantic cotton swabs? Doesnt sound very dangerous, I thought this was supposed to be heroic warrior stuff?”

“Well I…” Streth paused, frowning, “The heightened awareness that comes from sensory deprivation. Your perception of time as you feel the smallest movements of the air currents moving around you. The experience is… Incomparable. But yeah they do look a little like cotton swabs.” He conceded, “And I suppose both of your preferred martial arts have more to offer?”

“Personally I prefer to keep an enemy at the longest distance possible” Van Der Luan replied, “Once it gets to Close Quarters Battle it all starts going south. Visual, cognitive, and motor control systems start deteriorating and people start dying…” A veteran of numerous skirmishes with many of the Federation’s enemies over his career Van Der Luan had been on the sharp end and lived. He could handle it, but, ever the pragmatist, he knew it was as much by luck as by training that he had survived.

Kaksos nodded gravely, “Aye, when our enemies come at us with dirty ears our man here will be ready but the good LT is right, the best martial art is a long range rifle and a keen eye for danger.” Kaksos winked at Streth, “Easy, I make jokes, but of course I know the All-Federation Tournament, probably the most attended martial arts tournament in the known galaxy outside the Klingon Empire… Anboo Gipsoo…”

Streth rolled his eyes, working hard to internalise a hearty laugh. He leaned forward to grab the elaborately glass decanter that between them on the tabletop. He topped up each of the officers’ drinks, “You know, back at Cratek Pass, we never saw the Tzenkethi up close. When we got raided it was long range, impersonal. From the reports, I’m thinking dealing with the Breen’s going to be a similar story. That right, Kaksos?’

He didn’t answer right away, it took time to get to an answer that wasn’t snarling or petulant. “Every Breen is different. It’s near impossible to recognize who you’re dealing with. Sometimes they use blades, operate in silence, other time is sabotage and mind games, or they simply land ground troops and advance conventionally. It became very common to look behind you whenever anything obvious drew your focus. They never meet you face to face unless it’s to trap you.”

He grimaced, and showed his forearm, several deep pockmarks from insertions of shock rods told the whole story. He had been one such fool who let his focus get drawn, fell into the trap, got tortured.

Streth eyed the man’s scars with apprehension. Hearing about the Breen’s callous brutality was one thing, but now he stared at it with his own eyes, the gravity of the threat sank in. There was the reason so few had been up close and personal with them, sealed away in their refrigeration suits. There were certainly plenty of other violent species marauding around the galaxy, but few possessed an appetite for arbitrary violence and capriciousness like the Breen.

“Dangerous and honourless,” Streth muttered, “that’s what the Klingons say at least. I find myself in full agreement.” He thought back to his own time in the war. Paper pushing at Starbase 104, he had seen many come and go out to the front lines. Some never returned. Kaksos had, but Streth knew from all the ashen faces that streamed through the airlocks over those two eternal years that there would forever be an absent piece of the Talarian. Left behind in some prison, Breen torture chamber, or wherever the chasms else Kaksos had been flung to over his thirty-nine years of service. “Can’t be many out there who survived capture, how’d you get out?”

Kaksos swallowed the same bitter pill he had to swallow every day since then, he did so with visible effort, before calmly answering with, “I told them everything. Thank the creators for compartmentalization. There was no resisting. When we were traded for other prisoners, we got rescued in flight, and that was a ruse too. I spent a year in therapy deprogramming what they had done to me, I had been given sleeper commands. I… well let’s just say I’m still not allowed near anyone with a serious title… just in case.”

“Well you’re on the right ship.” Streth had plenty of experience with others who had come out of the war in bad psychological shape. He knew the mental fortitude required to make it through an ordeal like Kaksos’. Even so, he had no wish to prolong the man’s suffering by dwelling on the topic for longer than necessary, “No titles here. I believe when they gave us the official assignment, what was it Alake? Ah yes, patrolling the ass-end of nowhere. What could be better, fellas?” He finished his drink, “Hmmm. Time to call it a night, I think.”

“Good idea, will be an early start in the morning” Van Der Luan agreed and finished off the last of his Kummel “I’ll check on Delta shift then turn in too”

Kakso downed the last of his drink as well. “Until tomorrow” He nodded to the two Officers and left the lounge.

Van Der Luan watched his leave then turned back to Streth “I knew he’d been a captive, I did not know it was that bad. A year in therapy? Still under security limitations? Everything is still pretty close to the surface… You think he’s going to be able to function on this mission?”

“I believe that’s a decision for the good ship’s counselor,” Streth leaned in, “to whom he will be referred in the morning.” His glass made a clatter on the table as he placed it down with more than the usual gusto, “Give my best to Delta shift, and see you at 0730. Bright and breezy.”

“Referral sounds appropriate” Van Der Luan agreed. “See you then sir”

The human and the andorian thanked the bartender, exiting the Siberian Lounge side by side. Once in the corridor, the veil of professionalism descended once again. Wordlessly, they walked in opposite directions, each mentally processing the story of a man once broken by the very foe they now faced.

[ Denver, CO January 28, 2391 ]

The sun was still below the eastern plains as sixteen year-old Astrid Vogler pulled on her white snow pants and slid the suspenders over a pair of tan long johns made of a special material designed to hold body heat in and not absorb water.

Pulling the rubber band off her wrist she ran her hands through her recently bleached blonde hair and pulled it into a pony tail before she pulled on a heavy wool turtle neck sweater, and equally heavy woolen socks and stopped into her Nordic ski boots and laced them up tight.

She picked up her comm unit and walked across her room and set it on top of her dresser while she started stuffing gear and necessary survival gear into her open backpack.

“Astrid!” Her mother’s voice filtered up from the downstairs.

“Coming!” she shouted back.

“Could you two be quiet! I’m sleeping, or trying to,” her older sister Mindy yelled from her bedroom down the hall.

“Sorry!” Astrid replied and ran out of her room only to return a second later to retrieve her backpack and rushed down the stairs. Her mother and father were sitting around the dining room table sipping their coffee. “You didn’t need to make me breakfast.”

“You burn more calories at elevation, and when it’s cool,” he father said. “You need your energy.”

“Dad, I know!” She consumed enough calories for an entire day with that meal, and washed it down with some Earl Grey tea. She didn’t like coffee.

Standing at the door her father handed her the keys to the reproduction Jeep Cherokee. The family didn’t own an anti-grav car like normal people. Her father said always made the excuse that when your life depends on your transportation in the back woods you wanted to keep it simple. Astrid personally thought that he just liked doing things the hard way, and pretending like they lived in the twentieth century. They didn’t have a replicator in the house until she was in junior high.

“You have a change of clothes in a water tight bag?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“And food and water for two day?”

“Yes dad,” she said getting annoyed.
“Who are going with you?” her mother asked.

“Just Melanie and Jarod.”

“Who’s Jarod?” her father demanded.

“Mel’s boyfried.”

“Oh, did you pack a fire starter and a laser knife?” Her father asked suddenly remembering something he forgot to ask.

Astrid cocked her head in thought, and then shook it, “No, I don’t think so.”

Her father left and a few minutes returned with a small butane torch and silver handled laser knife. You could adjust the blade length to suit your needs and could be used as a portable saw, but the power cell would drain faster. She shoved the items into the cargo pocket of her snow pants and zipped it closed.

She kissed her parents goodbye and left the house and jumped into the Jeep and fired it up. Putting it into gear she backed out of the driveway and headed North West for the Rocky Mountain National Park seventy-three miles away. In the summer the drive would take a little over an hour. In winter using four-wheel drive, because her parents were dumb and had a car it would take almost three hours.

[ Rocky Mountain National Park ]
[ January 28, 2391 ]

The drive up the mountain was uneventful. Old Route 36 was still marginally maintained as there were still plenty of people like her parents who still drove. There were also plenty hobbyists who used anti-grav cars but enjoyed running their ATVs, and snowmobiles in the mountains.

As she was leaving Estes Park, Mel called her to let her know that she and Jarrod wouldn’t be coming. Her parents were overly protective like that. Sighing she closed the comm. in the Jeep and kept driving. She was almost there so rather than scrapping the entire day she decided she would make a quick trip of it.

She pulled into the parking lot for the Fern Lake Trailhead, and got out. Opening the back of the Jeep she pulled out her backpack, Nordic skis, and poles. She was dressed relatively lightly as Cross-country skiing was a lot of work, and even in negative ten degrees you still worked up quite a sweat.

Before putting her pack on she checked the emergency transport beacon. Avalanches in the backcountry were a real threat, and a simple press of the button the local authorities would immediately transport you to safety. Not for the first time she had to admire the bravery of the old-timers who would go into the woods without all the safety tools she had with her now.

Strapping her skis to her boots and with her beanie pulled down low over her ears she started down the trail. The first part would be easy is the trail worked its way down the mountain into the river valley below. The trail was well used and the snow was packed, but not so packed that her skies couldn’t get a grip.

She broke out of the forest and into a little meadow that lead up to the banks of the Big Thompson River. All around tall evergreens were accented with white from the recent snows. The Quacking Aspens stood skeletal with their bone grey trunks and branches reaching bony fingers into the azure sky.

She stopped at the edge of the Big Thompson out of breath. She opened her backpack and pulled out a water bottle. The icy water was so cold it almost burned as it hit the back of her throat. Capping the bottle she shoved it back into her bag and reached for her comm. unit to check the time, but the empty pocket in her snow pants sent her stomach to her feet, and then relief remembering that she had simply left it on her dresser.

Astrid shrugged this off. It was around eleven based on the sun. She would ski for another mile or so and then work her way back to the Jeep and she should be back at the trailhead by early afternoon giving her plenty of time to get off the mounting and back into the city before dark.

With a protein bar in her mouth she skied up to the river, and kicked her feet free of the skies. She walked a hundred yards or so up the bank before she found a place to cross by hopping from one rock to the other. One on the other side she strapped back in to her skies and continued across the open country.

At noon she decided to turn back. The work was grueling and she was exhausted when she arrived back at the place she crossed the river at. After removing her skis she sat down in the snow and pulled out her lunch, a simple ham sandwich and a bag of chips.

After her simple lunch she packed up. The temperature was starting to drop. The sky was starting to the turn dark as the clouds started to gather. There would be snow tonight. That was all the more reason to get off the mountain and back home. Her promised her chili tonight and a cup of Earl Grey or English Breakfast sounded really good right now.

With her skies in her left hand and poles in her right she stepped onto the first rock. There was a layer of ice that hadn’t been there earlier in the day. Astrid hesitated, but that was the only way across for miles.

She got to the halfway point as she hopped to one of the more dangerous rocks. It was at an angle, and glass smooth from a millennia of water rushing over it. Taking a deep breath she jumped, and the worst case scenario happened. Her left boot hit the top of the rock exactly as planned but the ice that had form sent it sliding. As she fell her right foot got caught between two rocks. She heard a sickening snap before she it the water.

The current was strong, and she came up sputtering and coughing for breath. She had involuntarily taken a deep breath as she feel into the icy depths. The rapids pulled her back down hindered by her backpack she slammed into a rock tearing a gash into her forearm.

Fighting back to she surface she shrugged out of her backpack. It had been twenty pounds dry, now saturated it felt like it was over one-hundred pounds. She was bashed into a several more rocks before she made her way to shore.

Hypothermia was setting in. She knew she was in trouble. She felt weak, tired, and no longer cold. She worked her fingers trying to get them to work as she crawled to her feet. She screamed in pain as she put weight on her right foot. She gritted her teeth against the pain. Her injury wouldn’t kill her, the hypothermia would. She shrugged out of her sodden jacket and turtleneck. She would lose more body heat with them wet than she would without them now.

She found a deadfall a couple hundred feet away, and made her way do it. She frantically broke off branches and twigs. It was only a mater of minutes, but from her perspective if felt agonizingly long before she had a pile of wood and pine needles.

She dug into her pocket and drew out the butane torch her father had given her and lit the fire feeding it slowly with increasingly bigger sticks. She then finished stripping down to the long johns which were only damp having done their job of not absorbing the water. She then set her soaking wet clothes on sticks pushed into the snow as close as she dared to the fire.

Now she had time to think with the immediate danger abated. Her heart soared remembering she had the emergency transport beacon. But, as soon has the hope had hit her she started to cry. It was in her backpack which, was now somewhere down river from her.

She stood and tried to walk. With the adrenaline gone the pain sent her head spinning and she fell into the snow shaking. Astrid finally peeled off her boot, which she screamed in agony as it came off. Her entire foot swollen and purple and her ankle was twisted savagely in an unnatural angle. Broken or dislocated it didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to walk five miles out on that.

The snow was deep at the dead fall having drifted up against the massive trunk. With nothing more than her bare hands she dug a hole down into the snow with her bare hands. Every few minutes she would have to stop and warm her hands back up over the fire.

After about half an hour she had been able to dig down to the ground below a meter wide and two meters long. She used the laser knife to cut a pole for her to lean on and she collected pine boughs from the trees around her and drug them over to her hole which she then covered with the boughs. For additional insulation she piled the loose snow from her digging on top of the shelter roof.
She built a new fire inside the shelter at the open foot and crawled inside. Snow might be ice but it wouldn’t get below zero degrees Celsius, which was still cold but nowhere near as cold as the negative fourteen that it currently was outside. She had heard that shelters like this could get as warm as 15 or 20 degrees with a fire. Not comfortable, survivable, and that was the name of the game at this point.

Astrid piled up extra wood onto her fire and crawled inside. She had lined the inside with pine boughs as well, and they smelled like Christmas. She pulled her now damp jacket over her shoulders. She was so tired, and the pain of her foot was nearly unbearable so she allowed herself to sleep.

Astrid woke shivering. The fire had died down to coals. Crawling over to her fire she fed small twigs into the coals and blew softy into the coals and after a few minutes flames sprouted and slowly grew. She rubbed her hands together to bring the circulation back into them.

Sitting back she pulled up her up her pant leg and her ankle had swollen to twice its normal size and it was impossible to move. With considerable pain she pulled her woolen sock. She collapsed breathing hard and tears in her eyes she stared up at the green ceiling of her makeshift shelter.

The sun had dipped behind Mount Elbert, and in the growing dark the realization the she would be very likely spending the night here. She didn’t have enough wood to make the night. Groaning in pain she crawled out of her hole and crawled on hands and knees around the deadfall and used her laser knife to saw off chunks of wood.

She spent the next hour crawling back and forth from the tree to her hole. By the time she had built a considerable pile of wood she returned to her shelter shivering uncontrollably. Astrid added more wood to the fire, and curled up into the a ball as close as she could comfortably could fell back into a broken sleep.

The next morning clouds hung low and heavy in the sky, and was still snowing adding to the foot that had already accumulated. Her mouth was sticky. She hadn’t drank anything since the day before. She pulled on her now dry turtleneck and jacket. Adding wood to her fire she crawled out of the shelter and to the edge of the river.

She hesitated at the edge. She had no way of boiling the water or purifying it from parasites. Intestinal diseases like giardia, were a real threat, but so was dehydration, and that was far more immediate.

She dipped her hand into the water and brought it to her mouth. The water was ice cold, glass clear, and tasted wonderful. She drank her fill and crawled back to her shelter and tried to get comfortable.

Lying there considered her options. The Jeep was five miles away. Not that far of a walk, but under current circumstances it felt like a thousand miles away. She figured she had two options.

The first was to wait for rescue. There was something in the rocks that prevented accurate sensor readings complicating finding her. Compound that with the fresh snow covering up her tracks she had no real hope of being found.

The second option would be get out of there on her own. It was a daunting prospect on one foot. She figured using an improvised crutch she might average half a mile and hour, and that meant ten hours of excruciating pain.

After only a few minutes of consideration she made her decision. She cut strips of cloth from her long john leggings and used them with a pair of dried sticks to splint her foot. There was no way so was going to fit back into her boot so she pulled her other sock on to the foot as well.

She covered her fire in snow to put it out and after finding a heavy stick with a y-shaped crook she trimmed the length and used her turtleneck as padding for her makeshift crutch.

Despite the cold she was quickly sweating as she fought her way up the hill. She thought when she finally made the trail that the going would be easier, but the steep ascent was exhausting and she was forced to rest every fifteen minutes or so.

Peeling off her gloves she stared at her sore hands. They both had blistered and now the blisters had split and were bleeding. Her right hand was the worst, but there just wasn’t anything she could do about it.

Just then a shuttle flew slowly overhead. “Park Ranger” was painted on the underside in bold green letters over the white hull. Astrid was elated, Rescue had finally come. She shouted with glee and waved her arms. Then her joy came crashing down as the shuttle kept flying away.

She sat there for fifteen minutes unbelieving hoping for that shuttle to turn around and come back, but it didn’t. Resigned she crawled to her one good foot and resumed her trek.

It was almost dark when she reached her Jeep. She was mentally and physically spent. She had hoped that there was a team of searchers set up at the trailhead as base camp, but it was deserted. Logically it made sense she supposed. She hadn’t told he parents exactly where she was going, only to the park, and the park was huge. Air rescue would have been the fastest way to locate her, and ironically that failed.

She fumbled with the keys to the door lock before pushing the key inside and unlocking the door. Using the last of her reserves she half fell, half crawled into the front seat and fired it up.
She pressed a few buttons and her mother’s face appeared in the tiny screen embedded into the dash. She looked like she hadn’t slept and her eyes showed signs of recent and repeated crying.

“Honey where are you? Are you okay.”

Astrid was spent but smiled weakly, “Fern Lake Trailhead, and no I’m not okay, but I’m alive. I broke my ankle and my toes turned purple last night and they hurt really bad, but other than that I’m just tired.”

“What happened?”

“I fell in the river. I’ll tell you the rest later. I’m going to drive to the hospital in Estes Park.”

“Just wait there and we’ll get someone to you.”

“”I’ll be fine. I’m miserable, hungry and thirsty. I don’t want to wait.” She put the Jeep in reverse and backed out of the parking spot and started the thirteen mile journey to Estes Park.

[Starfleet Academy – May 15, 2397]

Astrid stood in the mirror, her gold uniform recently pressed. She’d spent and inordinate amount of time doing her makeup and chocolate brunette hair. She touched the Petty Officer 1st Class insignia on her collar before removing it and setting it carefully on the counter before her. Sitting down at the edge of the bed she picked up her boots and started polishing them to a mirror shine.

One last check in the mirror she stepped out into the corridor. “Wow! I didn’t think you could get more spit and polished,” a voice came from behind.

Jenny Murray was there looking her disheveled self. “It’s not that hard!” Astrid chided. “Here let me help.” Astrid skillfully tucked and pulled Jenny’s unruly curly auburn hair into some semblance of order. “There that’s better. I can’t help you with your boots, but at least you are more presentable. Let’s go.”

The parade yard of the Academy grounds had as simple stage at one end and nearly two dozen officer cadets standing in formation. They would be newly minted officers who came to this as enlisted personnel.

“Attention!” an officer standing at the head of the formation shouted. Their training officer, a Captain James Canton walked up to the podium. “Morning ladies and gentlemen. I’m going to keep this short. I don’t suppose there’s anything I can say that you haven’t heard. You will bring to the mission with you experience beyond your peers. You’ve already served in this fleet, but you will have to remember you are officers now, and no longer enlisted. Let me be the first to welcome this class’ newest ensigns to Starfleet. Ex astris, scientia!”

With the commencement speech the Lieutenant walked to the podium. One by one the lieutenant called the names of the assembled. At the very last, her name starting with a V, Astrid’s name was called.

“Vogler, Astrid. Cadet Vogler, is graduating with majors in Engineering and Command and a GPA of 3.8.”

Astrid broke formation and walked and climbed the podium. Captain Canton pinned a single pip to her collar and handed her diploma to her. “Congratulations Ensign.”

[Fortel Colony – July 5, 2396]

Fortel Colony was only a few light years from the old Romulan Neutral Zone. With the fall of the old Romulan Empire rouge factions sprang up vying for power in their respective regions, and old territorial claims would threaten the peace of those living in their path.

Fortel Colony was one such planet. It was an unassuming rock barely habitable if not for modern technology. Too hot in the day and too cold at night a protective shield protected the settlement.

The people who called this rock home were hard. The planet’s only reason for existence was the ores pulled out of the hard rock mines that were used to build ships, space stations and other construction projects around the galaxy. Few knew of Fortel, but many had reaped the benefits from its mines.

The USS Audacious came to the planet, responding to a distress signal. Astrid wasn’t on the bridge when it came through, nor did she hear the exchange between the Romulan commander and the Captain. Not that that mattered in the slightest. As an NCO leading a squad of security crew members knowing the details wasn’t her place or to question.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a situation brewing on Fortel,” the ship’s Chief of Security started. Astrid and fifteen others were standing outside transporter room three. All were armed with phaser rifles, and wore backpacks over their standard Starfleet uniforms. “The captain has ordered you to beam down to the colony and help secure it from Romulan incursion. Petty Officer Vogler will be in command of this operation. Any questions?”

“No sir!” The unit responded in unison.

“Then get to it.”

It was dark when Astrid and her squad beamed down to the colony. An exhausted man approached with a phaser rifle in in his hand. His black hair was matted and greasy, and his clothes were dirty and torn.

“This is all Starfleet sent?”

“Petty Officer Astrid Vogler,” Astrid introduced. “Yeah, this is all we can spare at the moment. The ship is facing off with two Romulan Warbirds.” What she didn’t say was that this was all that the Captain was willing to sacrifice. Starfleet had a duty to protect the colony and they would to the best of their ability, but the captain wasn’t going to throw good money after bad, and was prepared to retreat to fight another day.

“David Ketchum, Fortel Colony Constable.”
Astrid accepted his offered hand, “Well, let’s get down it. I take it you got the supplies?”

“Much needed, and thank you. They took out the power gird right off the bat and we’ve been living what little water we can scavenge and no one thought to keep extra food on hand.”

She nodded, “Still, Starfleet rations are not what I would call living. Daniels and Jorell,” She shouted over her shoulder. “See what you can do about getting the replicators up.”

“Aye aye Top,” Daniels responded.

“I’m not an E-8,” Astrid replied, “but get to it.” Slinging her phaser rifle over her shoulder she nodded to Ketchum, “I better figure out what we are up against.”

The local security chief nodded and lead her into the Security office. The colony was operating on emergency power. There was just enough power to keep the shields up and computer functions going. He sat down behind the desk and entered some commands into his terminal and a holographic display popped up.

“The colony shield doesn’t keep solid matter or transporter energy in or out. Its sole function is to maintain atmosphere and reflect the majority of the star’s harmful radiation. The Romulans have taken the north side of the colony and hold our government buildings and the Governor.”

“How many enemy troops are we looking at?”

Ketchum shrugged, “A couple hundred.”

Astrid was pretty sure she wasn’t going to like the answer to the next question, “And how many do you have in your militia?”

“Twenty-eight, and another twelve walking wounded and could probably fight from a fixed position. We started off with seventy-five.”

Astrid sighed, “We have to hold the line. There will be reinforcements; it’s just a matter of holding out long enough for Starfleet to respond. Everyone who can hold a phaser needs to be a fighter. The attack will come from here,” Astrid said tracing the only real way into this part of the colony. There was a canal on three sides with only one bridge crossing it. The back side was butted up against as craggy set of cliffs.

Pointing to a building nestled amongst the cliffs, “Put the non-combatants in the basement here. We’ll set up a firing parameter along this street. The enemy will be funneled into us. I’ll place snipers at these buildings here, here, and here. We can’t hope to hold them indefinitely, but the plan is to inflict as many casualties as we can so they lose their will to fight.”
“Ketchum swallowed, “Casualties…”

“Yeah, it’s us or them. I hate the idea too, but here we are.”

“It’s a solid plan. Okay, we have work to do.”

The Romulans came at dawn. Their progress was slow as the moved from cover to cover. Their snipers were the first to open fire. The initial assault was intense. Astrid felt like her rifle was continuously firing, but they had taken light casualties. One of her Starfleet security officers took a disruptor to the shoulder. He’d live but he was out of the fight, and the colonists had two killed and another four injured. It was impossible to say what the Romulans took, but she estimated that there were at least twenty or thirty casualties on their end.

The second wave was better prepared. They had anti-matter mortars and portable micro torpedo launchers that decimated her lines and destroyed the buildings where her snipers were hiding.

“Ketchum get your people back to the fall back position we’ll cover you!” Astrid shouted over the din of weapons fire. She had to take out the mortars and torpedo launchers. “Jackson, Grel, and McPherson you’re with me. Douglas you hold this line to the last man. The colonists have to get out you understand?”

“Yes ma’am,” the young NCO replied.

“Good. I suggest you did in. Once the colonists are evacuated you fall back to them. That is our Alamo. I think we can both agree that being prisoners to these Romulans would be a bad idea.”

George Douglas nodded. There was no official channels for Starfleet to negotiate with these rouge entities, and since they were acting like war lords Starfleet would be unlikely to negotiate with them anyway.

Astrid and her tiny team worked their way slowly through the rubble trying to avoid the Romulan patrols. The rest of the Starfleet contingent was keeping their attention away from them and the moved undetected.

Finding the locations of the enemy artillery was a fairly easy task. They just needed to follow the ordinance back to its source. They were lightly guarded, but there were outnumbered.

“Grel, you set up here and create suppression fire. McPherson you follow that line of shrubs to the right and keep their attention off of me and Jackson. Questions?”

They all shook her heads. “Get to it,” Astrid ordered. Hanging right and keeping to cover as best as possible she and Jackson moved into position. When the allied fire opened Astrid sprung her trap. She felt slightly guilty shooting them in the back, but needs must.

She and Jackson ran to the mortar with enemy disruptor beams striking the earth around her. They each dropped explosives into the weapon and ran for cover as she pressed the button exploding their target destroying them.

Now all that was left was the micro-torpedo launcher. They found it a few blocks away. This time there was only one guard. The Romulans probably never thought that their quarry would attack them in this manner. Hubris had been the downfall of many generals.

“I’ll run across their field of fire,” she said to her people. “Don’t miss!” Vaulting over their cover she ran full tilt across their field of view. Disruptor fire hissed out at her. She had almost made it to the other side when she felt a burning sensation across her back and then everything went black.

Astrid woke. There was a ceiling above her, but beyond that she didn’t know where she was. Was she in a Romulan POW camp? Suddenly the face of the Audacious’ Chief Medical Officer came into view. “Welcome back the land of the living Crewman. It was touch and go there for a minute.”

“They weren’t supposed to miss,” she groaned in pain.

“I didn’t, but the Romulan didn’t either. Sorry about that Top.”

“I’m not and E-8,” she protested, but it was weak. She was so very tired at the moment.

“Excellent work Crewman,” The voice of the captain said as he came into view.

“Uh… yes sir,” Astrid said and forced herself into a sitting position in an effort to stand.

“Relax Petty Officer, that’s an order.”

Astrid fell back into the bio bed with a sigh. “Yes sir.”

“I’m putting you and your team up for accommodation. You guys save the colony. We reatreated and feared the worst. When returned the Romulans had pulled out and abandoned their attack. Whatever you did you made it too expensive for them to keep fighting. Good work,”

“Thank you sir.”

“Now, get some rest. We need you back on your feet.”

The science department had its lights dimmed as the graveyard shift just started. Normal operations would mean that at least two or three officers would be present at the department. But for a Steamrunner-class such as the Altai, one was enough to uphold the fort. In one of the offices, a single light was present, a desk light to be more specific. There Katsu was sitting, looking at the latest astronomical scans, when the Altai entered the desolate area of unending floating rocks, gaseous clouds, and rogue planetoids. 

Letting out a sigh of relief, Katsu wouldn’t deny how much she embraced the isolation from social interaction. But, of course, she had her deans to thank for this assignment. They knew that big ships, starbases, or even colonies would be too tense for her to handle. Katsu had on a different screen the specification of the Altai and looked at it for a second “Complement of 120 souls, mmm I am one of them,” She mutters with a soft smile on her face. The Altai had another plus. In her opinion, it was assigned to the vast unknown to do simple patrols close to the Breen Confederacy. They were going to check out some random outpost because it had become active. 

She did shrug a bit. Eventually, even though she is not an engineer, she would be required to go towards that outpost and check for any anomaly or see what the scientific reports indicated. It would mean that she had to work with an away team and their endless questions like what happened at the academy. Leaning back in her chair, she looked at the ceiling and listened to the beeping sounds of the analyzing equipment and computer calculating. This assignment was heaven for her; she would do anything to keep it like this. 

Her eyes shifted back to the screen where the Altai was on and remembered a quote from her teacher “What will you do when they recommend you for a higher position Oka? Your work will not go unnoticed, and you will get attention even though you do not desire it. But as you said, leaving the academy was like walking away from your dream. So start slow, but bear in mind it might go quick suddenly, and people might require more from you than you can handle.” Oka shrugs. Her teacher was correct but for her to openly talk about careers and future goals was not something she could easily do, especially with no Chief Science onboard the Altai. Would the Captain leave her in the comfort bubble she was in already, or pop it and drag her into the reality they all had to face. 

A beep broke her train of thought as she looked at the other screen and saw that the results were in. She nodded to the data and started creating a report for the command team. But, of course, there was still much to worry about. Later she could worry about silly things like social interaction. 

Lisald stepped into Science Bay 3, the Natural Sciences and Planetary Science Lab, which was the third stop of five on getting to know his department, the people in it, their qualifications and capabilities, and really, just getting to know the layout of the USS Altai. Its design and configuration were very different indeed from the Nebula-class starship he had come from.

He looked around and spotted an officer working diligently and, for what it appeared from the organization and neatness of her station, efficiently. Lisald approached her. “Hello,” he said in way of greeting.

Katsu stiffs up as it legit scared her that someone was standing there speaking to her. She was so focused on her work that she didn’t hear the person come in? Looking slowly over her shoulder to the man standing there, “Good day….” Seeing the rank on his neck, “…sir” She manages to get out. 

Lisald smiled and waved his hand, dismissing the last word. “I prefer Vaat,” he said, “I’m Lisald Vaat. Just came aboard.” He looked around, getting the feel of the room. Coming back to her, he asked, “What are you working on there?”

Hearing the man prefer his name with rank made it awkward for her. She didn’t know him personally to call him by only name “I prefer stating your rank Lieutenant“ She shrugged and finally looked at her scans “Astro data of the area, what the rocks composed of in regards to the mineral that potentially could be used in our operations here in the sector. Thought the results are coming out with common minerals that we are not specifically looking for… sir.”

Vaat shrugged. If she insisted on calling him by his rank, he wouldn’t stop her. “Good work. Anything stick out specifically that grabs your attention, or is it all rather unremarkable? Also, I didn’t catch your name,” he said, blushing ever so slightly. It was always embarrassing having to ask someone’s name.

Anything remarkable, she blinked and looked at the data then heard the question of her name “Oka, sir” she was still looking at the screen. “Aside from the fake asteroid that we found earlier, I tend to look at anything that meets those criteria readings. But everything looks clear, do you think the Breen are out there, sir?”

Vaat smiled again, and nodded at her. “Pleasure to meet you, Ensign Oka. That artificial asteroid will take some time to analyze and reverse engineer. I hear Lieutenant Beck is all but beside himself with it. Honestly, it reminded me of the old O’Neill-class starbases that humans postulated, and eventually improved upon, back in the 21st century. Did you know that after humans settled Mars, they put giant lasers in space, fired them at the asteroids in the Sol System asteroid belt, causing asteroids to start spinning and heating up, and at critical mass, they ballooned outwards into a spherical shape? Humans are nothing if not incredible at thinking outside the box. But, here I am rambling on. As for the Breen, I honestly do not know. There have been a few sensor ghosts pop up, not to mention that odd sound coming through random comm channels. I suppose if I were sitting in the center seat, I would have to err on the side of caution and anticipate them being out there. Thankfully, however, that is not up to me.”

Looking with a  confused view at the lieutenant, did he not realize that she was also human? Katsu just slowly nods. “Those kinds of scientifically projects are taught in the academy, and it might be spearheaded by humans, but further investigations on the subject of rotation and gravity of subjects in space are done by other members of the Federation” Katsu then looked a bit worried hearing the possibility of Breen ghost pops “They do tend to warn about the cold behavior from Breen, but they have had no intention or interest in Federation space for quite some time, plus if I have to believe these scans there is nothing worthy to them either here.”

Lisald nodded again at her first comment. Choosing to wait to answer the second, he responded, “You aren’t wrong. It’s just Humans actually used the principle in large-scale industrial construction, the aforementioned O’Neill-class starbases. You are human, I believe. It’s a compliment, an acknowledgment of the human capacity to do things and make things that other races, my own Bajoran heritage among them, would not attempt.” He paused for a moment, hoping the compliment was received well. “And honestly,” he continued, now moving on to her second comment, “Who knows what the motivation is of the Breen. They have their ways, as unusual as they are to you and I. I cannot help but wonder why a state-of-the-art Dreadnaught would be adrift, and inside of Federation space, especially this sector. As you pointed out, there is nothing here of value to them, save for a few obsolete scientific arrays, most of which are not functional. It could be, if they are here and we don’t yet see them, that they are testing our resolve, or tactical response, our Engineering, any number of things.”

Nodding at the compliment was still a weird way of complimenting someone. Katsu scratched the side of her head, thinking about it. Katsu looked at the data on her screen “The data that I have been reviewing for the past few days since arriving here myself. I just couldn’t put my finger on this derelict ship that was adrift. I am no engineer, and the scientific field on ships is beyond my ability. But how you keep looking at the ship is in some ways too well in its shape and design. Maybe calling the Breen and letting them pick up the ship is better?” 

Moving closer to her console that she was working on and looking at the information himself, he had to agree with her. “You aren’t wrong at all about it being in really good shape to be adrift. If that ship drifted here, it has been drifting for an exceptionally long time. Short of the scorch marks and pockmarks we put into it with our torpedoes, it is in pristine shape. I imagine Starfleet will have to contact the Breen at some point to come back and get it, though since it is in Federation space, we have the Rights of Salvage to claim it as our own and reverse-engineer it. Still, I think if the Breen knew we had it, we would be up to our earballs in Breen, don’t you? No, I think we will have to turn it back over to them. Starfleet would be insane for not doing so.”

“That is where it becomes interesting,” Katsu pointed out as she swiped to the right to bring up the latest report. “The away team was terrorist by the mechanical spider that was destroyed and brought back for reverse-engineering” The images slide past, showing the spider. “If the ship, especially of this class and condition, was left behind by the Breen, then would you not agree that they would rather see it explode than be taken for reverse engineering by us?”

“Truth,” he said, sitting down next to her. “Unless it was a deliberate trap. Those mecha-spiders were intelligent, designed extremely well.”

Leaning backward, “A case of barking up the wrong tree, sir?” The idea that Breen scientifically investigated areas that were not so well known and went wrong was not a first in history. But they needed access to their mainframe to know if that had happened. 

The Bajoran furrowed his brow, a universal sign of not understanding what had just been said. “What do you mean?”

Katsu shrugs a bit. “Simply put, Breen is known for their warrior state of mind but also for its scientific achievements. What if that,” She points at the spider, “Is a newly test weapon that was put adrift to us to be tested?”

Lisald was bemused that she had all but proven his point for him. “Exactly my point. They are a warrior race, and scientific curiosity aside, that is a battleship through and through, Ensign, and obviously with an automated defense to attack the biological and the technological. That is why I believe they are up to something, and why I think we need to continue looking. There has to be a way to scan for them and detect them. If they are out there, of course. Something is up. I can feel it in my ridges,” he said, pointing at the Bajoran ridges on his nose, with a smirk on his face and a gleam in his eye, clear indicators that he was attempting to be a bit jovial at his own expense.

Nodding to the lieutenant, she brings up some waves on the screen. “Then this is something that might help, I noticed a patron among the frequency when the away team was there. It is low, but it is there…they are being instructed and what is instructed should be blocked,” Katsu pointed out. 

The Chief Science Officer scooched in closer and looked at the dataset. As he studied it, watched it be manipulated as things had happened over on that ship with the spiders and the Away Team, his eyes got wide. “Holy Prophets. I think we should show this to Lieutenant Jones!”

Katsu was a bit surprised about the reaction and just nodded to him. “Aye, sir” She replied shyly.