The USS Zebulon Pike dropped out of warp near Terra Alpha.  Civilian commercial traffic filled the space around around the planet as ships came and went from Starbase Byron, a small and inconsequential Starfleet station serving the sector. Ethan thumbed the comm on the armrest of his chair, “Terra Alpha Control this is USS  Zebulon Pike requesting vectors to Capital City Spaceport.”

“Zebulon Pike, Terra Alpha Control; slow to one quarter impulse and proceed direct to waypoint Papi.”

“One quarter impulse,  direct to Papi, Pike out.” Ethan replied.   He repeated the order to the helm and the small ship rolled right and dipped into the atmosphere.   The ship was slightly buffeted as it flew through the increasingly more dense atmosphere.   The blackness of space was replaced by purple od upper atmosphere that faded that that too gave way to blue broken only by white fluffy clouds. 

When the ship finally broke through the clouds and massive ocean lay below them as a city with tall skyscrapers loomed ahead.  Their glass facades gleaming in the sunlight.  Shuttles and ships of every configuration filled the sky.

“Zebulon Pike,  change to approach frequency 121.8,” Terra Alpha Control announced. 

“121.8, aye,” Ethan replied.   He entered commands into the comm system and spoke again, “Capital City Approach this umis USS Zebulon Pike requesting to land.”

“Zebulon Pike adjust heading 1-8-0 decend and maintain 900 meters.”

“1-8-0, descend to 900.”

The city grew in size as the ship approached.  Following the flight path outlined by control they skimmed over the tops of massive buildings.   They made a left turn at a wide river which divided the city and lined up for the Spaceport that lay before them.

“Zebulon Pike ,  you are cleared to land at docking port 12-A.”

“Cleared to land at port 12-A,” Ethan parroted.

The ship made a singled circuit of the Spaceport and came to a hovering stop above an open bay.  The landing struts extended from the bottom of the ship and it slowly lowered to the landing pad. As it came to  rest a couple Starfleet uniformed ground personal converged on the ship and started securing it for docking.   A jet bridge automatically extended from the terminal linking up with the airlock.

After about fifteen minutes the crew of the Pike were standing around Ethan inside the terminal.   This part of the Spaceport  was specifically set aside for Starfleet,  and they were the only ones there. 

“Okay,  this is for Jolie and Adam. Since you two are new to the team you are free from all duties.  You can stay here on Terra Alpha,  you are all welcome to stay with Trinity and I on our ranch.  Or, you can go and do your own thing.  Just don’t leave the sector.  We are often called up suddenly.   There’s a transport leaving for Starbase Bravo tonight if that’s what tickles your fancy.”

Aimee sat at the dining table wearing nothing but an oversized t-shirt and her hair up in a messy bun.  She was cradling a cup of coffee liberally treated with cream and sugar. 

The large picture window behind her displayed Capitol City in the wash of an early morning sun.  The AlphaTech Building, a local landmark, was gleaming brightly across the street bathing her apartment in gold. Shuttles and anti-grav speeders raced between the buildings in carefully orchestrated order.  And fifty-six stories below, cars and even a few trucks navigated the streets as pedestrians went about their business.

On the opposite wall of the apartment, a large viewing monitor hung on the wall playing the local news. The anchor sat behind the news desk wearing a grey silk suit and a navy tie. There was a graphic of a dour-looking Klingon over his left shoulder.

“The trial of Q’otok, Son of Malkor is set to begin tomorrow.  Also known as Q’otok the Bloody was arrested two years ago for war crimes committed at the Hataka Labor Camp during the infamous Operation Gatecrasher.

“Q’otok was an early member of the Sovereignty of Kahless and quickly rose through the ranks eventually becoming commandant of Hataka. Following the fall of the Sovereignty he had spent nearly a decade in hiding, and officials are calling this a victory in bringing more of the conflict’s war criminals to justice.

“According to court documents obtained by TANN he has been accused of murder,  starvation, and torture during his time overseeing the labor camp. He is also thought to be complicit and even encouraging of medical experimentation on prisoners by the notorious Klingon known simply as Doctor Death.

“His trial was delayed several months after his attorneys argued that Q’otok would be unable to get a fair trial in Paris.  Last week a judge granted a motion to move the trial to Vulcan and the trial will follow Vulcan jurisprudence.   Opponents to this decision believe that Q’otok’s victims will not see justice served with what they believe is Vulcan pacifism.  Q’otok has yet to make any statement other than his initial plea of not guilty.

“In other news officials are calling this the ‘Storm of the Century’. A massive ion storm is moving into the area originating from the Paulson Nebula.  TANN news correspondent Victoria Price is live from Starbase Bravo with more.”

“Thank you, Tom.  As we know last month Coronal was struck by this storm with devastating effects.   I spoke with one of the survivors earlier.”

The broadcast switched to a pre-recorded clip with a woman as the subject.  She looked tired, worried, and defeated.  “We got the evacuation order the night of the first,” she started.   “My uncle owned a small cargo ship and with some neighbors and family friends, we escaped with barely more than the clothes on our backs.  I hear that at the end fights broke out between people trying to get on the last remaining seats. Supposedly someone was stabbed.”

Switching back to the reporter she continued,  “There is no final casualty number but it is feared that over a thousand colonists lost their lives to the now toxic atmosphere. Several colony worlds are being evacuated as we speak as the Century Storm bears down on them.  It appears Caldos Four is one such world threatened by this storm.

“I spoke with Commodore Vega today and her response was that the Fourth Fleet had ‘all hands on deck’ and they are mobilizing every available ship in the area including civilian ships.  Captain Reyes, executive officer of Starbase Bravo, stated that this station will be central to aiding refugees going forward and they are opening the station’s second medical center in preparation for an influx of casualties.  At Starbase Bravo for TANN, this is Victoria Price. Back to you Tom.”

The image returned to the studio, and the anchor nodded,  “Thank you Victoria. Officials are saying that Terra Alpha is currently not in the path of the Century Storm,  but due to its unpredictable nature, Governor Nicholas Ryder has issued a soft evacuation encouraging those that if they have the means and ability to leave they should.

“The Terra Alpha Senate is voting on legislation…” Aimee picked up the remote pressed the off button as Dougal walked into the apartment carrying a bag of food and a tray of coffee.

He gave her a once over, “Ye are still in yer pajamas I see, and ye didn’t need this wee coffee. You already have one.”

Aimee gave her coffee a disgusted look like it had suddenly gone bad.   “I always have room for real coffee.  What else did you bring?”

“Och aye,” Dougal agreed.  “Just a wee bagel.”

“Everything?”

“Aye.”

“You know me all too well,” Aimee said with a loving smile. She sat up in her chair as Dougal placed the coffee and bag in front of her.

She eagerly dug into the bag and pulled out a cup of oatmeal which she slid over to Dougal and extracted her own bagel and a packet of cream cheese which she smeared all over the toasted surface.

She was about to take her first bite when the monitor started buzzing with an incoming call and a picture of Trinity on the screen.

She answered the call with the remote and sat back in her chair with her fresh cup of coffee in her right hand. “Hey, Trin. What’s up?”

“You’re gonna have to cut your leave short Aimee.  You’re being called back.”

Aimee sighed,  “I expected that.  The news said they were pooling every possible ship.”

“Yeah, it looks bad.  Once I get ahold of Ethan I’m sure he’ll want to take off.  He’s out riding with the kids right now and doesn’t take his combadge with him.”

“I don’t blame him.  I’ll swing by the medical clinic and get some supplies and head to the ship then.”

“Thanks, Aims. Oh, could you tell Dougal for me?”

“I’m here lass.  I heard the whole thing,” he said leaning into the view of the camera.

“Thanks, Dougal.  I’ll talk to you two later.”

Astor’mret was a tiny Narlin settlement on Terra Alpha tucked away in the forests of Cascadia.  The giant redwoods reminded the refugees of their homes on Talaria, and as such roughly 200 Narlins called this forest village their home.

Audren Swiftblade walked up the stone walkway and it was like passing back in time or stepping into a Tolkien novel.  The houses were built high into the trees connected by rope and wooden plank bridges.  There were several sandstone and marble buildings between the redwoods baring intricately carved designs and religious scenes carved in relief.

Audren entered a nearby lift and she was lifted into the tree canopy. She stepped off the lift and made her way through the “streets” of the village.  On the far side of the village, she entered a circular building.

The air was thick with incense smoke and illuminated by candles and several oil lanterns. An old Narlin woman sat cross-legged on a rug with her back against the trunk of the tree in the center of the room.  The elderly Narlin was approaching her third century.   Her fingers were long and boney with deep wrinkles across her light blue face, and her long sweeping ears sagged and decorated with numerous golden earrings. Her eyes were clouded white with blindness. She was a High Priestess serving that village.

Audren sat down across the Priestess folding her legs under her and hand into her lap.  They sat in silence for a long time before she spoke. “Lady of the Moon,” Audren began, “I have returned to my people after time with strangers.”

“We are all strangers in a strange land,” the Priestess replied.  “How was your time with the humans?”

“I consider them friends,” Audren admitted.   “They have different ways. They do not honor their Gods or even their ancestors,  but they are a good people.”

“There is more to living than prayer and tradition.   An argument could be made that not all traditions are worth hanging on to.”

Audren considered the comment for a moment,  “Like armor and swords.  Humans have abandoned those items long ago yet, we consider them integral to battle despite having little practical use.  Though,  they have forgotten the ways of the land.  There is no connection to nature and they struggle to survive when there are no replicators or air conditioning.”

“We are of nature. Narla placed us here to live in harmony with it, not to conquer and turn our backs on it,” Priestess observed.

“Despite that, I believe them to be honorable people.”

“The Emperor agrees with you,” Priestess nodded in agreement. “What are your plans now my child?”

Audren considered the question for a moment and finally spoke, “I will remain on the Zebulon Pike.   I have not felt like I have belonged anywhere for a long time until I took that assignment from the Emperor.  They do not need me to monitor the cloaking device. Their engineers are resourceful but… I have friends there.”

“Narla be praised,” the older woman said.  “I think you should consider joining their Starfleet.   It could give a face to the plight of our people.  We cannot stand without the help of the Federation.  It may be the death of our way of life,  but doing nothing is the death of our people as a whole.”

Audren considered the priestess’s words.  She said nothing but simply nodded.

“For now your place is with the humans, but there will be a test.”

That grabbed her attention and fixed her eyes on the dead eyes of the other woman.  “Test?  How?”

“There’s a storm coming,” Priestess said in her crackling voice.  “You will be caught up in that storm, and you and your friends will be lost to time and space.  I have no notion as to if you will be able to return or what your part in that it may be… That fate is obscured in fog, but if you do not go all you shall know is loss. Now, let’s pray.”

Audren bowed her head with the priestess and joined her in prayer. 

Audren left the Temple of the Moon shaken a quarter-hour later.  She leaned against the wooden rail seventy feet above the forest floor and taking in the clean fresh mountain air and filling nature restore her sole as she considered the wise woman’s words.

It wasn’t a good idea to ignore the prophecy of a priestess, let alone a High Priestess of the order.  Narla wouldn’t look kindly on that and the God of Death… or even the God of War were known to enforce the will of Narla upon those that ignored her wishes.

A chirp of her combadge broke her from her reverie. Sighing she dug into her robes and pulled it out and pressed it.  “This is Audren.”

“Audren,  it’s Trinity.   Sorry to bother you, but shore leave has been canceled.  Sorry.”

Audren was happy to hear that.  She had lost her appetite for staying in Astor’mret after her conversation with the High Priestess.  That prophecy was disconcerting, to say the least.  “Understood Commander.”

“Thanks, Audren.  Trinity out.”

-Rafter T Ranch, Central Mountain Region,  Terra Alpha-

Ethan was stripping the saddle off his buckskin-colored quarter horse, Jake.  His twins Arthur and Diana were doing the same with their ponies.  They had gotten up early that morning to ride the fence line that followed the Trinity River and then cut west at the base of Mount Archer.   He had every faith in his cousin, David Sackett, in being able to maintain the ranch, but he still liked to do his share when he was home.

Leading Jake through a nearby gate he turned the gelding loose into the pasture and the big dun trotted off snorting before finding an open patch of dirt near the barn and dropped to his belly and rolled making a muddy mess where he had sweated under the saddle.

Closing the gate he drags his heavy roping saddle into the tack room and placed it on the saddle tree and hung the bridle on the wall.  He returned outside and the kids had their saddles off. “Don’t forget to curry your ponies kids,” he said as he picked up their saddles for them.

“Okay daddy,” Diana responded.

He returned from the tack room after putting their saddles away to see the kids turning their horses out.  “Hey kids, check the water for the horses in the barn and then come in.  I bet Mrs. Ackers has breakfast ready!” There were general groans of acquiescence, but they dutifully ran into the barn. Arthur closed the door on his sister just to make her mad, which it did.

Ethan chuckled and shaking his head he headed for the house.  Trinity was waiting for him on the step.  “There you are. Been waiting on you for an hour.  I would have called you.”

“I don’t bring my combadge with me when I’m on the ranch.”

“I know, and I told Captain Erill’Yun Mek that as well.”

“Who? Oh yeah, that’s right he’s Charlie-Oscar of Task Force 86.” They were technically part of the Task Force but they generally operated outside of that unit’s operations generally worked directly with Starfleet Intelligence out of San Francisco. 

“What does he want?”

“You’re being activated for this ion storm coming out of the Paulson Nebula.”

“The storm?  What’s the Pike going to do?  150 evacuation limit is just going to put us in the way.”

Trinity shrugged,  “I don’t know, but he wants you on Starbase 86 for a briefing ASAP.”

Ethan sighed and ran his hands through his hair, “Well, it’s a humanitarian thing. I reckon we ought to get to work.  We’ll need to recall the team.”

“Already ahead of you.”

“That’s why I love you,” he said and kissed her.

– A remote area of the ranch –

Jolie sat with her back to the tack and staddle she had borrowed from Ethan when she decided to take him and Trinity up on their offer to stay on the Ranch. She stared into the flames as they danced over the logs in the firepit she’d built. As she sat there, the glow and heat had helped her slip into a meditative state of mind.

To the untrained eye, she appeared to be in a trance and easier pickings, but Jolie was fully aware of what was going on around her. She could hear the steady breathing of the steed she had tied up next to her. The rustling of a nearby animal did not escape her notice. But those noises didn’t worry her because she knew she could handle herself if she needed to.

She reached up and pulled the flaps on her duster, adjusting herself so that sleep could find her when she was ready. 

“Enjoying disappearing into the wilds?” Ethan asked suddenly as he stepped into the camp.

Jolie looked up at Ethan, “We all need time to decompress,” she stated as she reached over and pulled a percolating coffee pot off of the grill that had been laid over the flames, “Coffee?” she offered.

He grinned widely, “I thought you’d never ask.”

“I take it this isn’t a social visit,” she said as she leaned back against the saddle once more.

He pushed his Stetson back on his head and poured himself a cup of coffee. “If this were social I would have ridden in on Jake, and not beamed in. Unfortunately leave has been canceled.”

A sigh left her lips as she realized just how unfortunate the cancellation was. She stood up and looked at Ethan as she picked up the tack and saddle, “He’ll make it back to the stables if I was to give it the command to?” she asked him as she tightened the belt to hold the saddle in place.

“You’re asking if the horse knows his way back to the barn?” Ethan chuckled,   “Likely,  but there’s two gates between here and the house.  I would hope you closed them.  Nah, we can use the transporter. I brought the ship with me.”

– A nearby mountain range. –

Never being a big fan of ranches or horses Adam had declined Ethan’s offer to stay on his ranch. Instead he had made a campsite at the base of a mountain. After the long hike out to the mountain he was pretty tired. He camped for the night and began his climb the next morning. It was a long climb and he was free climbing because he enjoyed the thrill.  Adam was about 200ft up the side of the mountain when his wrist PADD beeped and a holo image of Ethan appeared on on. “This cant be good.” Adam said as he adjusted himself to be more secure in his position so that he could talk to Ethan.

“Hey Adam,” Ethan greeted. “I hope you didn’t get too comfortable.   Leave has been canceled.”

“Man even in a black ops unit we can’t get a full shore leave. Beam me up.” Ethan laughed and cut the line just before beaming Adam up.

Starbase 86 was a hub of activity with ships and shuttles of every conceivable make and model.  Civilian and Starfleet packed the space around the station and it had taken the USS Zebulon Pike nearly half an hour to get within transporter range of the station.

And like every other instance of humanoid suffering in history the greedy were there to take advantage of the desperate. A pair of Farengi Marauders were holding just at the edge of the mass of ships trying to take advantage of those that didn’t know any better.

The promenade of the station was just as busy as the surrounding space as humanoids of dozens of Alpha and Beta Quadrant aliens moved about the station.  There were even a handful of Gamma and Delta Quadrant aliens thrown into the throng for flavor. 

Commander Ethan Talon felt suffocated in this mass of humanity.  He tugged at the collar of his Starfleet uniform.   He hated how tight it was around his neck.  He hated the whole uniform in general having gotten used to wearing mostly civilian clothes.

“This is a Grade A cluster-fork,” he said to Lt. Commander Jolie Kyo who was at his side.

Jolie couldn’t help but agree, though she would have used a harsher word, but she understood.

Had this been on earth in what was called the ‘old west’ she would have just pulled out her shotgun and let loose a single double shot of buckshot into the air to get everyone’s attention and alpha maled the throng of people that were in front of them to make a path to the lift but alas this was not the ‘old west’ and as such she and the Commander had to force their way through.

As they pushed their way through the crowds, Jolie realized that this was far more than the station normally had at any given time.

Leaning over, she spoke just loud enough for the Commander to hear her, “Something is wrong Ethan, this station is usually busy, but it has never been this packed,” she said as she pushed people out of the way as they made their way.

“Refugees from that storm I expect,” he said with an irritated edge to his voice. “I’m glad I’m not running this shit show,  or in security trying to make order from chaos.”

“I am guessing that would be why we are here?”

“Yeah… that would be my guess as well.”

They pushed their way through the mass of people and found their way into a turbolift.  Once the doors parted Ethan let out a sigh of relief.  “Ops.”

Stepping into the operations center of Starbase 86 Ethan flagged down a junior officer, “Captain Mek?” She looked up from her work and pointed vaguely at the CO’s office.  “Thank you,” Ethan added and crossed Ops to the Captain’s office and rang the door chime.

Jolie made a mental note of how bored the junior officer looked as she looked at them and how her response suggested that she was tired of being at her position, and lacked any discipline.

Mek looked towards the display embedded in the bulkhead to the left of his desk, “Noted, Captain,” he replied to the commander of the USS Trineya, “we’re allocating more space in the central core for emergency shelters, so make sure your people direct the refugees there on arrival.” 

The Septran flicked back his ear combs in acknowledgement, “I hear the first wave is already with you.”

“Yes. We’ve got ships coming in from Regulus, Japori, Birresh… We knew it was gonna be bad, but I’ve not seen anything like this since the Romulan supernova. Expect a wait before getting within transporter range.” 

“Understood.” The screen reverted to the blue UFP seal.

Mek steepled his fingers and let out a deep sigh as he sat back in his chair. For a nanosecond he entertained the idea of replicating a raktajino, and that was when the door chimed. His first free moment of the day had just evaporated.

“Enter.” A human with chiseled features appeared from behind the glass doors. Stepping in with a confident stride, he bore a severe expression with narrow eyes. Mek glanced down, failing to recognise anything on his schedule that might have referred to the man. “Welcome, Commander. I don’t believe we’ve met?” Mek extended his hand, noticing a woman who had entered just behind the tall officer. 

Ethan took Mek’s hand and shook it. “No sir, I reckon not. Ethan Talon, and this is my second in command, Jolie Kyo.” Ethan stood before Mek at not quite attention, but certainly not at ease either.  You look like you have your hands full sir. Not sure why my merry band of spies can do, but since you called we’re at your disposal.” 

“Ah yes, Commander Talon, Commander Kyo, of the USS Zebulon Pike if I remember correctly?”

“Yes sir,” Ethan replied.  “You have a mission for us?  I can’t imagine we’d be much help in evacuations with the Pike, but we’re at your disposal.”

“Yes, yes,” Mek collected himself, “right, yes.” The faraway look in his eye dissipated and his brain found what it was looking for, “We’ve got a problem, Commanders. You’ll be well aware that it’s the subspace rifts within the Paulson nebula that are responsible for the sheer size of this storm. Starfleet Command’s main concern is the long range scans we’ve picked up from sector 1038 here,” Mek tapped at the keys on his desk, bringing up a starchart of the nebula on the wall display. Several swirling patterns marked the rift locations, peppered across the mauvish patch of space that represented the gaseous cloud of protostar matter. Towards the top of the map six of these blueish pinwheels clustered together, their spiral arms overlapping each other in a chaotic mess. Mek tapped again, magnifying and highlighting them in a red glow, “As you can see, we’ve detected an unusual concentration of these rifts. That’s about all we know, and it’s not enough. Between the number of systems threatened by the storms and the need to get those rifts closed, we’re stretched pretty thin. Think you two could take the Pike in there and get us a better picture of what’s going on?”

Ethan shrugged,  and glanced at Jolie for a moment.   “I think the ship can handle it.  We aren’t your typical survey ship.  We could use a science officer on temporary assignment if you would grant that.  Our specialties are more hide and break things, not study and analyze.”

“We’ve all got a lot of hats,” Mek smiled at the two commanders, “believe me this is not what I would normally be doing either. But right now, with this much we don’t know, we’re all scientists.” Mek paused, reviewing his words and deciding that yes, he was happy with the way that sounded, “Now if there’s nothing further you’d like to discuss, I need to see about finding more space for these refugees.” 

Ethan snapped to attention and gave Mek a formal and old-fashioned salute.  Making an about face he made his way out of the office. “Let’s not repeat that walk through the promenade,” he said to Jolie.  “Talon to Zebulon Pike: two to beam up.”

-Five Days out from SB86-

Ethan was in his quarters and a holographic representation of Trinity was being broadcast to the ship over sub-space radio.

“You’re in uniform,” Trinity observed.   “I have to be honest that’s a little weird.”

“It’s weird for me too,” he said as he picked up a thermos of coffee and poured himself a cup.   None of their quarters had replicators.

“No whiskey either?”

“On duty… and I don’t want to start being an alcoholic you know.  That wouldn’t work.”

“No, I suppose not.  So, how bad is it?” Trinity sat down next to him on the bed wrapping her arms around him and leaning in.  “This hologram of you even smells like you,” she said lifting her head off his shoulder in surprise.

He grunted in response,  “The miracles of modern technology.   It’s bad enough,” he said answering her original question.  “Starbase 86 was overrun with refugees and I head Starbase Bravo is at capacity too.”

“The were reports were saying it was bad,” she said soberly. “What do you think about those rifts?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.   “I’m not a scientist.  To be honest. I’m surprised they sent us, but we aren’t evacuating anyone with the Pike, but we may be freeing another ship may that is needed in that capacity.”

The comm beeped and the voice of the team’s pilot cut in, “Commander we’re approaching our assigned rift.”

Ethan sighed and tapped his combadge,  “Acknowledged Ensign.   Have Jolie and Adam report to the bridge.”

“Understood.  Bridge out.”

Ethan squeezed Trinity’s hand and kissed her.  “Duty calls.”

“It always does,” she said with a slight smile. “Damn that duty.”

Ethan chuckled,  stood, and went to the holo-emitter controls.  “I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

“You better.  And no late-night liaisons with your XO,” she teased.

Ethan rolled his eyes, “Goodbye dear. I love you.”

She smiled, “I love you too.” With that, Ethan closed the comm; and she vanished. 

  -Elsewhere-

Adam is in the Pikes’s gym working on some cardio. He runs to keep his cardio strong. You never know what you are going to get into with a mission on the Pike and being able to run can be very important. The call to the bridge came just as he was toweling off. “Acknowledged Ensign. On my way”

Jolie lay on her bed with her eyes closed. It had been an eventful couple of weeks since she had been contacted by Ethan to join the Pike. She remembered the Commander’s stepmother quite well as she had taken a fancy to the Commander when she was a child.

Now here she was serving alongside the very same bloodline that she had known all those years ago. The thought couldn’t be contained and she sat up and tapped the monitor on the bedside table, and called her father.

Just before she was able to establish the call she had to cancel it as her intercom called for her to report to the bridge. A sigh left her lips as her fingers left the icon on the monitor.

Stepping out of her room she nearly collided with Ethan, on her way to the bridge, “Commander,” is all she said with a slight nod and fell in behind him.

“You can call me Ethan you know.  I’ve known you since you were playing with Aimee and Liv on the Denver. You probably don’t remember me. I was just their older brother.”

Of course, she remembered him how could she have not but that another lifetime, or so it felt. With a nod, she remained silent as they headed for the bridge.

  -Bridge-

“Go to yellow alert Mr. Stephens,” Ethan said sliding into the center chair.

“Aye Commander. ” Adam said as he pushed the intercom button and said “All hands to yellow alert.”

“Approaching within one-hundred kilometers of the event horizon of the rift,” the pilot announced.

“Hold position.”

“Holding position aye.”

“Jolie,  what are the sensors telling us?”

Jolie raised her head from the console, a puzzled expression on her face. She didn’t want to give Ethan the scan results until she had confirmed what she saw on them. She was even more perplexed after a second scan of the rift.

“This doesn’t make any sense, Ethan,” she said as she continued to stare at the console. “My initial rift readings indicated that the rift in front of us has temporal conditions. But when I ran the scans again just now, they were gone and the rift wasn’t even there,” she said, looking up from the console to confirm that the rift was still visible on the viewscreen. “However, as we can see, the rift is right there, one hundred kilometers off our bow.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.  Run a quantum spectral scan.” The hairs were raised on the back of his neck. Something didn’t feel right.   “Adam go to red alert.   Scan for indications of cloaked ships.”

“Already on it,” Jolie said as she finished the command input on her console. “No change on the rift,” she announced.

Adam pressed the intercom again and said “Red alert. All hands to battle stations.”  he then activates the ship’s scanners ‘Sir I am picking up traces of a neutron surge. Something nearby is cloaked”

“Adam see if you can track it.  Jolie… I need answers here.”

“Running more targeted scans.” Adam says looking at his console “The cloaked vessel is 75 kilometers off starboard bow”

“Lieutenant, where did you see that neutron surge?” Jolie asked as she began to run her next series of scans on the area around the rift; running through ever-known and theoretical combinations.

Adam sends his scans to Jolie’s console.  “Here is the exact location.”

“Helm back us off. Nice and slow. They could just be curious about what’s going on like us.  Are your scans complete Jolie?”  Ethan stood and went to the tactical station looking over Adam’s shoulder studying the scan, “That’s a strong signal.   More than one ship or do you think this storm is making the cloak of one ship malfunction?”

“It’s hard to say, sir. If it’s just one ship it’s big. Really big. But it’s likely interference. I am trying to enhance the scanners right now, but I don’t know how much that will help.”

He patted Adam on the shoulder.  He wasn’t getting any answers and that was something he did not like.  He let out a long sigh and then turned in a decision,  “Jolie hail the ship.”

Jolie nodded and tapped on her console, “Comm’s open, Ethan.”

“This is Commander Ethan Talon of the Federation Starship USS Zebulon Pike to unidentified vessel seventy-five kilometers off of our starboard bow.  Identify and state intentions.”

Two Romulan Valdore class warbirds decloak at the coordinates on the screen and the voice of a Romulan male comes back on the comms. “This is Commander Malthius of the IRW Meron. We are here scanning the nebula. I presume you are doing the same”

“We are,” Ethan replied.  They were no match for one warbird let alone two. There was no need for them to be cloaked unless they were up to something. “Perhaps we could pool our resources together and be done quicker.”

“Sir the Romulans are powering up weapons. I am rerouting power to shields. There is no way we can fight them.” Adam says.

“Captain,” their pilot announced from the helm. “The phenomenon is expanding.”

“On screen,” Ethan said as he moved to the center of the bridge. The outline of the rift started expanding exponentially, and alarms blared in a warning. “Get us out of here! Maximum warp!”

The helm beeped in resistance as their pilot tapped in the controls, “We’re unable to establish a stable warp bubble.”

Ethan dropped into his chair and braced his feet against the floor as he pressed the all-call button. “All hands, brace for impact!”

The ship was buffeted, slight at first, but increasing in intensity before they exited the rift and into open space.  The Romulans were gone, and so was the nebula.  

“Helm control coming back online,” the pilot announced.

“Audren, is our cloak available?”

The Hylon woman looked away from her console,  “It is. Engaging cloak.”

“Helm, full impulse 010 mark 85, and follow a zigzag course for the next fifteen minutes and then come to a full stop.”

“010 mark 85 zigzag courses,  aye,” the pilot responded. 

“Jolie I need answers, and Adam, find those Romulans.”

Adam begins scanning the area. “I don’t see the neutron surge anymore.  I think they are… gone.” He pauses before the last word, unsure of how the ships could have disappeared with no warp trail or cloak signature of anything.” 

Jolie looked up at the viewscreen and then back down at her console and then once more at the viewscreen, “Um something is wrong here. These stars are off,” she stated as she looks now at Ethan.

“Off how?” Ethan asked a sinking feeling hitting the pit of his stomach. “Like…other side of galaxy off?”

Unexpectedly, a ship decloaked on the primary viewscreen. It appeared to be a Romulan ship, but it wasn’t. The second thing that stood out on the viewscreen was a female Romulan’s outfit. The usual grey tunic and black slacks were replaced by a solid black form-fitting costume with a blood-red sash that draped from her shoulders. The sash carried what appeared to be medals and awards, all clumped together except for one that appeared to hold the sash to her shoulder.

“This is Commodore Sukitha of the starship Balnag of the Galactic Commonwealth of the Imperial Romulan Star,” she introduced herself. “With whom am I conversing?” She inquired, her gaze fixed on Ethan, as if she already knew who was in command.

Ethan made a theatrical show of walking to his seat and sitting down without saying a word.  He crossed his legs, sat back in his seat, and steepled his fingers.  “Commander Ethan Talon of the Federation Starship Zebulon Pike. Your organization is unfamiliar to me, and I doubt it’s recognized by intergalactic treaty or the Romulan Republic for that matter.  Judging by your uniform am I correct and assuming you are an offshoot of the Tal Shiar?”

Sukitha’s emotionless facial features remained as blank as ever, “I do not recognize this Federation that you speak of,” she stated as she continued to look at Ethan. “Nor do I recognize this Tal Shiar that you think that I am a part of.”

Ethan crossed his arms and stared at her suspiciously.  Was this a plot or arouse? Romulans were known for their subterfuge but decided until he knew more he would play along. “Commodore,  I am a member of Starfleet which is the military and scientific exploration arm of the United Federation of Planets, and intergalactic governing body made up of over 180 planets and founded by Vulcan, Terran, Andorians, and Tellarites.”

He then sat up with both feet flat on the deck and typed out a message to Audren.  They were supposed to be cloaked, yet this Commodore had located them.

A moment later a text returned on his armrest, Cloak is fully operational.   The reason for detection is unknown.

Ethan frowned at that. He resisted the urge to decloak and ready weapons out of fear that that would provoke the Romulan. “We are on a peaceful exploration of the rifts that are occurring in this area.  We do not want trouble,” he added.

Jolie tapped the mute icon on her console and the comms muted. “Ethan, this is what I meant by something is off,” she stated as she brought up her findings and flicked them over to Ethan’s armrest. “Some of the stars are in the wrong position and some are in the correct position,  while some cease to exist.”

He considered the information for a moment.   Nothing really made any sense, but all the clues were pointing in a certain direction.  “Is it possible we’re somehow in an alternate universe?”

“Well if it doesn’t make sense and we have exhausted all logical options then whatever is left must be the truth. I have scanned several times for any Federation ships, beacons, and buoys. Hell I went as far as reaching out for Klingon signatures and I have found nothing,” she stated as she continued to look at Ethan, “I could only speculate that we were pulled into the rift, Ethan.”

“Mr. Holms couldn’t have said it better,” he said with a smirk, “Or Surak.”

“Commander. The weapons and shield systems on that ship are beyond anything I have seen before. That added to the fact that they basically ignored our cloak. I recommend we stand down and fall in line with whatever they want for now.”

“Diplomacy it is,” Ethan replied as he unmuted the channel. “Can we be of assistance in any way Commodore?”

Jolie then realized that the Commodore couldn’t actually see their ship, but rather its signature, which with all of the modifications to the Pike made the ship seem larger than it really was. Having gleaned this bit of information from her sensor scans she sent a text to Ethan’s armchair, ‘Ethan I do not think that this Romulan can actually see our ship. I think the pike’s signature is throwing her off and is trying to actually get us to give ourselves away.’ She stated in the text.

Sukitha, looked at Ethan for a moment from her viewpoint on the main viewscreen. “Tell me, Commander Ethan. How many do you command?”

Ethan gave Jolie a raised eyebrow as if to ask if she was certain,  but there was really no way of knowing for certain. That said, the Narlin cloak operated differently from the Romulan/Klingon style cloaks that were common in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.   That’s why he negotiated to get one on the Pike. “Commodore this is a Dreadnought-class starship.  I have a crew of 1,200 and another 5,000 Marines.  We are a peaceful people,  but we are not going to enter into a potentially hostile environment without being able to defend ourselves,” he bluffed.

“In 2160 a task force of Vulcan, Human, Andorian,  and Tellarites left for the Romulan homeworld to end the war.  They were pulled into a wormhole near the Denorios belt.  Stranded in the Gamma Quadrant in old warp five ships they opted to settle down and form the Federation.   We have since grown to an interstellar power created on the back of conflict with the shapeshifters of the Dominion.  Now we have sufficient technology to return to the planet of our origins and to see how our cousins on Earth have fared.” Ethan sat back in his chair feeling proud of himself for weaving such a tale, and one he hoped would be believable.

With her mask of pure emotional control, Sukitha, continued to look at Ethan. She understood then that they were far from home but she still wanted more information.

“I see. Tell me, Commander Ethan, how is it that a single vessel like yourself is so far from home? I can only imagine what the crew morale is,” she stated as she looked over the bridge crew.

“Crew morale is just fine,” Ethan replied flatly.  “You see, what our ancestors didn’t know at the time was that wormhole was stable.  They assumed like most other wormholes that it was unstable,  and the Dominion soon chased them away so studying it wasn’t an option for a very long time.”

“I see,” Sukitha said as she remained continuously in control of her emotions, “so all you want to do is get back to your home planet,” she stated as she continued on, “Then answer me this, how did you end up in our territory when everyone knows that the Denorios belt is nowhere near here?”

Damn, he thought.  She caught that.  He wanted to keep his story based in facts as much as possible, and he had no idea how much was known in this reality.  “Commodore Sukitha, we have not been in this Quadrant of space in nearly two-and-a-half centuries.   We are surveying the political landscape to get an understanding of what and who controls these regions.”

Adam sends a message to Ethan “I have been scanning the Romulan ship’s warp engines. I think we are faster than it should we need to run.” Ethan nodded to Adam.  He was thankful for that information.   It made a difficult scenario even more manageable. 

Sukitha looked at Ethan with intense eyes. “Is it really your intention to just find out who owns what area, Commander?” she asked as her eyes bore into Ethan’s.

This caught Jolie’s attention and she played along with Ethan, “Commodore, is it policy to continuously repeat yourself when you come across another ship, even one that is cloaked?” she asked as her own eyes bore into Sukitha’s emotionless Romulan eyes.

Ethan made a quelling gesture to Jolie. “Commodore we are only exploring.  We shall make a direct course for Earth, and then we will return to the Gamma Quadrant.  Helm, set course for Earth maximum warp.”

“Maximum warp, aye.” The helm officer repeated. 

Sukitha now turned her attention toward Jolie and for a nanosecond the look of curiosity and frustration registered in the Romulan’s eyes. The viewscreen suddenly shifted and the Romulan ship appeared in view before cloaking.

“Enguage.”

The whole crew was in the mess hall.  Holographic officers were manning the bridge and engineering in case something unexpected happened.  They were all seated around the main table a pot of coffee and a kettle of tea sat in the center of the table.  

Ethan reached for the coffee and filled his cup.  He took a careful sip of the unaltered bitter liquid before speaking,  “Okay, people what do we know?  Are we sure this isn’t a ‘when’ question as opposed to a where?”

Jolie sat next to Ethan, a mug of tea steamed in her left hand, going over logs that the sensors had detected from the Romulan ship as well as the sector.

‘Something doesn’t stack up,’ she thought to herself as she examined the Romulan ship’s tactical readout. ‘There is no way the Romulans could have such advanced weaponry, let alone defensive armor.’ She continued to look over the readings, comparing them to the Pike’s archives, when she realized they have one advantage over that ship.

She lowered the PADD as she looked up at Ethan. “There is one thing that we know and have confirmed, Ethan,” she said as she looked around the room at the crew. “They do not know our size, that much is for sure, and one other thing,” she said as she flicked the tactical log onto the primary monitor in the room, “I think they experimented with our cloaking tech sometime in the past. I’m not sure, but our sensor detected that their cloaking module contains some of our Narlin designs.”

“That’s impossible,” Audren announced.  “We are good friends with your people and we haven’t given you the specifications to our cloaking designs.  More specifically that’s why I am here.  To run and maintain that cloak.”

“No one has said that you have,” Jolie said to Audren. “I have concluded that the rift that we saw earlier has transported us to a time where things are different, way different,” she says to Ethan. “I’m not sure how different they are yet, but given enough time, I’m confident I’ll figure it out.” She then turned to face Adam. “I need you to see what you can do to keep us cloaked and our bluff intact,” she said. Then, looking over at Audren, “I have a feeling that these Romulans are far more formidable than the Romulans we’ve encountered in the past, or, more specifically, our reality.”

“I can provide some energy settings and that will help reduce our signature, and I’ll see if I can adjust some settings,  but I have to insist that no one can actually access the cloak but me,” Audren announced. 

“Don’t worry. I won’t mess with the cloak itself. I have a few ideas that might allow us to continue tricking the Romulan sensors.” Adam said.

“Be that as it may, Jolie’s suggestion is sound,” Ethan replied.  “Jolie, see if you can get a fix on the stars and get us a date.  Somehow I expect we aren’t too far from 2400, but in an alternate reality like the Mirror Universe.  The more we know the better.”

Jolie nodded, “I’ll do one better and actually see if I can get a better understanding of who controls what.”

“The wee Lieutenant an’ I can create weapons shadows making us look more armed than we are,” Dougal suggested. 

“That sounds like a solid plan Douglas,” Adam said nodding. “It shouldn’t be too difficult either”

“I’ll see about making our life signs show bigger.  How bigger?” Aimee asked. 

Ethan winches, “6,200.”

Aimee thought about it and nodded, “I’ll do what I can.”

“At this point, that’s all any of us can do,” Ethan said.  “How much longer until we reach Earth?”

“About six day,” the helm officer responded. 

“”Okay maintain course and speed.” Ethan drained his cup and stood, “Okay people let’s get to work.”

Commander Tomarah stared at a blank viewscreen in front of her. Then, entering commands into her console, she confirmed, “The human ship is moving off in the direction of Earth, and I can confirm that the cloak is not of our design.  It operates on a phasing technology.”

Sukitha sat in the central chair, her gaze fixed on the viewscreen, trying with all her might to spot any change in the stars that would indicate she had spoken with someone she knew was dead. She had not betrayed that knowledge while speaking with Ethan, and she was relieved to know that none of her crew was aware of Ethan.

“Phase Technology,” she said absentmindedly, still unsure how Ethan was still alive or if he was a ghost sent to remind her of the only time a human had ever saved her.

Tomarah approached her superior with her hands clasped behind her. “Do you believe this human?”

“That is still unknown, Commander Tomarah, but we will find out soon enough,” Sukitha said, looking at her Commander. “In the meantime, keep an eye on that ship and try to break through that Phasing cloak. So that we can be sure of the actual size of the prey we are hunting.”

“I will do what I can. Unfortunately, phase cloak technology is notoriously unpredictable and theoretical at best for starships.   We lost three ships during initial tests, and it was banned.  And forgive me, history is not my best, but wasn’t that a Narlin on that ship?  Didn’t we eradicate their empire and make their home planet a Reman colony decades ago?”

Sukitha looked at Tomarah, at the mentioning of a Narlin. “Are you certain, Commander?” she asked as she looked directly into her second in command. “I don’t want a repeat of history that nearly wiped us out.”

“Very certain,” Tomhara replied.

Sukitha stood up and walked over to the nearest console to replay the conversation that had just taken place, and sure enough, a Narlin stood on the bridge of that ship. Then, turning back toward her second, she motioned with her head to her office.

Tomarah followed Sukitha into her office and stood at attention before her superior officer.  “I don’t know what it means with that Narlin on their ship, but it seems to put into question the rest of the human’s story. If he is bluffing about his backstory, he is likely bluffing about the size of his ship as well, and it is likely inferior  to our ship.”

Sukitha ignored Tomarah’s warnings about the Narlin and the bluffing. Instead, she walked over to her desk and sat down. “Have a seat, Commander,” she said, pulling up a sealed file that was locked behind a personal code. A file containing a record of a human was seen on a monitor near the two of them a moment later.

“Tomarah, no one knows about this file, not even the Romulan High Council or Command,” she said, looking over at her second in command. “I’m letting you know because you’ve seen,” she paused and tapped on an icon on her desk’s console. An image of Ethan appeared on the screen as she continued, “this man right here,” she said, indicating the photo of Ethan. “he’s supposed to be dead in an action that nearly ten years ago saved my life and the lives of my crew.”

Tomarah raised an eyebrow at that, “Saved your life? A human?  Not likely. Or at least it wasn’t some noble effort. He probably did it to save himself.   So, now we know he’s lying and capable of elaborate hoaxes. You should notify the fleet, hunt him down and eliminate him before he does whatever it is that he’s planning.”

“Tomarah,” Sukitha said in a tone that demanded that her second in command listen. She then tossed the woman a Starfleet badge, charged and almost unidentifiable, but a single name and part of some code were on the back. “There is no way that he could have survived a warp core detonation.”

Tomarah picked up the badge and examined it, “I do not recognize the style and construction of the ornamentation.  What is it?”  She then extended it to her commanding officer,  “This survived.  Why couldn’t the man who had also survived?  But okay, let’s play out this scenario.   This Commander Talon we just met, and the Commander Talon that had this device is indeed the same person.   And let’s say that he died as you have said.  What does that mean?  He traveled forward in time or back in time?  Possible,  but in truth, unlikely.   Did he emerge from that rift from some alternate universe?  Again, possible, but that seems even more ludicrous than the first scenario.   No, the simplest explanation is that he faked his death, and you were misled.  So, the question remains; what are you going to do about it?”

“That is indeed the only question that remains,” Sukitha stated as she looked at Tomarah. “What am I going to do about this?”

She sat there for a moment and then looked at Tomarah with a grin on her lips. “I am going to order the total surrender of that ship and force it out of its cloak.”

Tomarah grinned. That was the Commodore Sukitha that she was accustomed to.  “Yes, ma’am.”

Sukitha stood up and moved back onto the bridge, “Helm find that ship, and I don’t care how you go about doing it. Tactical once that ship is located,” she paused for a moment and, in a dark tone, continued, “fire on it.”

Ethan’s quarters on the Zebulon Pike were no different from anyone else’s.  He had always made a thing about rank not being a part of his command.  It was probably why he wasn’t a first officer somewhere and how it was unlikely he would ever command a standard starship, and to to be honest that was exactly how he liked it.  He didn’t care for the chain of command,  and his evaluations had shown that.

He sat back in his chair and picked up a photograph of his wife,  Trinity. He traced her features with his index finger.   They were supposed to have a holo-call again tonight.  It seems like that was unlikely now.  With luck they would be back before he was really missed and she got to worrying.

“Damn it!” He growled  setting the photo frame face down. Looking at her had become unbearable with guilt and fear.  Shoving those unproductive emotions down deep he set up and turned on his computer terminal.

“Computer access bridge communications logs from time we were hailed by the Romulan ship.”

The computer obediently accessed the logs and Commodore Sukitha appeared on the screen.ll “Computer access Federation database and use facial recognition software on the individual on screen. “

“Working.  The individual in question has been identified as using the Romulan Empire database obtained in 2388 and current Starfleet database.

‘Bring up her biographical information on screen.” Ethan spent the next several minutes reading the dossier on Sukitha.  It seemed she was very well-known in his timeline,  and none of it matched up with the individual he’d spoken to. Except for that face. Even the subtle expressions matched.

This was all too frustrating. Every answer opened more questions.  As he was going back through the footage another Romulan caught his attention.   He isolated her and focused on the face.

“Computer identity the Romulan officer.”

“Working… Governor Tomarah t’Sei of Galundon’kor Resettlement Colony. Governor Tomarah is from a noble family,  and graduate of the Romulan Military Academy.  She served as a Warburg commander during the Dominion War. Tomarah ended her military career as an Admiral where she joined the senate serving on the Romulan War Council and Economic Development Committees.”

Ethan sighed and switched of his computer.  That wasn’t the life the Tomarah was leading on that other ship with her commander’s rank insignia.  “Ethan, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” he said to himself. 

“We are approaching the Sol System,” the Pikes’s navigator announced.

“Slow to impulse,” Ethan ordered.

The Zebulon Pike dropped out of high warp not far from the azure ball of Neptune.  The cloak had been taxing their systems,  and it had taken them nearly two weeks to reach Earth. But, there was something about Sukitha that told Ethan that she wasn’t one to give up so easily.   He just hope his story was convincing enough.

Standing up from the center chair he walked over to his first officer who was manning operations at the moment.   “Any indication of Starfleet?”

Jolie nodded but the look on her face was not that of joy but of confusion mixed with dread. “I have found what we are looking for but,” she paused as she looked at Ethan. She then brought up the closest ship and it was an NX class. “It appears that we have a serious problem.”

“NX class?” Ethan replied unable to fully comprehend the situation.   “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“You’re telling me,” Jolie said as she looked at Ethan, “It’s like Earth is just starting out. Also, the ship’s composition is that of our first ships.”

She brought up a freighter and shook her head. She then scanned the moon, “Ethan, the Lunar colony,” she paused as she brought it up on the viewscreen, “It’s…it’s… not there,” she stated as the Pike flew over the area that should have held a healthy population.

“How does this make any sense? ” Ethan said completely confused. “How are Romulans more advanced than us, yet humans are 250 years behind us?  I know there is a Sukitha in our timeline,  and there’s another Romulan on that bridge that my mom saved during the Dominion war.”

“Ethan, we need to find out what is the missing piece that will get us back to our timeline,” Joile stated in a flat tone, a tone that Ethan hadn’t ever heard come from her.

He nodded, “I couldn’t agree more.  What do you suggest?”

“Recon, and find out what is going on and if the Federation has been established or if the United Earth Commonwealth is in place. I can only hope that it is the Federation and not the UEC as that would mean that Andoria, Vulcan, and Tellar Prime have not been contacted to establish the Federation and its principle,” she stated as she stood there in front of the operations console.

“We can start with that NX-class ship,” Ethan observed. “Since they are human,  and this isn’t our reality I think the Prime Directive doesn’t fully apply here. Or do you suggest we beam down to Earth and pretend to be a local?”

“I think beaming onto the NX-class would be too risky as most of the crew would have known each other for some time. So to take a less risky course of action would be to beam down to Earth as local citizens and maybe even Starfleet personnel to see what is going on. I am sure that being Starfleet personnel might be a little riskier but it should give us more on what is going on,” Jolie says as she looks from Ethan to Adam. “What do you think Mister Stephens?”

“Beaming down in uniform is a bad idea for sure. Especially if we don’t even know for sure what uniform they are wearing. We should beam down in civies and try to hit a remote section of a bigger city at first and then explore from there.”

“I agree.  We should beam down as civilians.  I think in a uniform is too risky at the moment. So I guess the next question is where?  San Francisco or Paris?” Ethan asked.

“I think San Francisco is going to be our best bet personally.” Adam chips in.

“San Fran it is,” Ethan quipped.

-San Francisco-

The air was crisp in cold as the Bay Area often was in the morning. The fog had settled in on the area,  as it usually did and the sun had yet to burn it off. Aimee Sandoval paused at the ringing of a device in the pocket of her tan pea coat.  Sighing she dug into her coat one-handed as the other had was occupied by a Starbucks cup.

“Sandoval,” she replied into the device. There was a pause as she listened to the voice on the other end of the line. “I understand Doctor,  but those bones indicate a significant evolutionary leap in hadrosaur development.   The apparent shrinking of the skeletal structure to roughly two meters and a more upright posture indicates a more humanoid development in their movements… No, the evidence of stone tools is not a coincidence…  No Doctor Armstrong,  fossilization doesn’t work that way, and we have never found any evidence of hominid activity in the Cretaceous Period… That’s exactly what I’m saying…  That and in conjunction  of development of opposable digits I believe hadrosaurus did in fact evolve to become the first intelligent species on Earth.”

As Sandoval continued to speak in the device a man dressed in a solid grey uniform, except for a red shirt, came around the corner. His piercing blue eyes looked directly at her.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said as he came to stop next to her, “Are you, Doctor Sandoval?” He asked her.

“Hang on Doctor Armstrong,” Aimee announced.  She looked the strange man over with her own green eyes, “PhD yes.  What can I do for you?”

Dr. Aimee Sandoval stared suspiciously at the man standing before her. She had hung up on Doctor Armstrong, and her finger hovered discreetly over the panic button on her phone. “Can I help you? If you require medical attention, I cannot help you. I’m an anthropologist.”

After glancing at Aimee, Jonas took a half-step back, his hands held up. “My name is Colonel Jonas White, and I’m here to fetch you. I was sent by a civilian scientist you should be familiar with,” he said, still holding his hands up. “Doctor Cheon Kyo,” he stated.

“I am familiar with Doctor Kyo. He sat on the panel for my doctoral dissertation hearing.”

“Is there a problem?” Another woman demanded, approaching from the opposite direction. Rebecca Sandoval was wearing a navy version of the Colonel’s uniform with the rank of Captain. “Are you bothering my daughter?”

Jonas turned his head and looked at the woman approaching, “Not at all, Captain,” he said as he looked at the woman. “I am just here to escort Doctor Sandoval to Doctor Kyo per his request.” 

Suddenly a woman came around the corner in black fatigues and walked smartly towards the group. “Is there a problem here, Colonel?” she asked. On her collar, she wore two silver bars, the rank of Captain. An M4 was slung over her shoulder as she stopped next to Jonas.

“Not at all, Captain Vax,” Jonas replied as he suddenly felt like he was back at home being surrounded by all of them. “I had just begun to…” he looked at Rebecca. “Daughter?” he paused as his head cocked to the side. “Captain Sandoval?” he questioned as he kept his eyes on Rebecca. “Captain, aren’t you supposed to be at the UEC confab in Paris?”

“No, I am not,” Rebecca said, finding this exercise highly suspicious. 

“Mom, it’s okay. I know Doctor Kyo. Well, I know him professionally anyway. I’ll be fine. Let’s do dinner tonight instead of breakfast, okay?”

Rebecca eyed them with suspicion, “I have time. I’ll come along.”

Vausees looked at Rebecca with a raised eyebrow. “Um, Captain, do you even have the clearance to enter R&D?” she asked.

Jonas looked at Vausees and shook his head. This action caused her to look at him. “What? We all know that Doctor Kyo would have my head if I let anyone in that wasn’t cleared.”

“I have the highest security clearance,” Rebecca countered.

Vausees thought to herself, ‘I doubt that.’

“Mom. It will be okay.”

Rebecca looked her daughter over and finally assented. “Fine, but if I don’t hear from her by 15:00, I’m sending in the MACOs.”

Vausees smirked as she looked at Rebecca. “I like you,” she said in a soft tone. “but I am afraid that won’t work,” she stated in a tone that was all business. “You see the MACOs get their orders from,” she paused and motioned with her head towards Jonas, “him.”

“Captain Sandoval, you have my word your daughter will be in the best of care and hands,” Jonas stated, knowing, all too well, that that wasn’t going to be enough for a mother.

Aimee leveled her gaze on Vausees, “True, but he answers to my dad, General Talon. I’ll be fine, mom.”

Rebecca stared down at Jonas like he was a raw cadet caught in the act of misbehavior despite them being technically the same rank. “I lost a daughter and her half-brother to people like yourselves. I am holding you personally responsible for my daughter’s safety.”

Jonas nodded. “She’ll be in the safest place with Vausees and me.”

Vausees nodded as she slipped the M4 from her shoulder. “That she will be, Captain.”

Jonas continued, “I will even have a unit of MACOs posted outside if that will keep your mind at ease, Miss Sandoval.”

“How would I know? I won’t be there,” Rebecca said with evident frustration. She hugged Aimee slipping a micro comm unit into her hand. “I’ll see you tonight, Sweetheart. I’m going to get a room here in San Francisco instead of going up to the Challenger.” With that, Rebecca turned and walked down the street. The decision had been made, and she didn’t even look back as she rounded the corner heading for the navy shipyards.

*** Office of Doctor Cheon Kyo Research & Development ***

Doctor Kyo sat behind a desk in the center of the room as he plucked away at the monitor attached to the desk. He heard the hiss from the door that led into his laboratory and knew that only a hand full of people had the authorized access codes to enter his part of UEC’s compound.

“Greetings, Colonel and Captain,” he said without looking at Jonas and Vausees. “I see that you have brought Doctor Sandoval with you. I sure hope that Captain Sandoval didn’t cause too much fuss about not being able to join us, Aimee.”

“More than I’d like, but I cannot blame her. A similar situation occurred to Ethan and Liv just before they died. I admit I am a bit disconcerted about this myself. What could you possibly want an anthropologist for?”

‘Interesting,’ Kyo thought to himself as he looked away from the monitor right at Aimee. “So you think that I brought you here for your anthropology?” He asked as he stood up and walked over to a wall-mounted monitor. “Take a look at this, Aimee,” he said as he motioned for her to join him at the monitor.

Aimee moved into position to look at the monitor and raised an eyebrow, “Is this some sort of a joke because I’m not laughing.”

“Aimee, when have you ever known me to play a prank on anyone? We picked up a strange transport signature a few hours ago, and when I examined it, I found what you had just seen,” he stated as he singled out both Ethan’s and Aimee’s life signs on the data stream. “What do you think can cause your dead brother to be still alive?”

“I honestly don’t know,” she admitted. “If it’s not a hoax, why would either of our signatures appear? Clones, maybe?”

Cheon nodded to her suggestion, “I thought that too. However, when I ran the synthetic detection protocols,” he stated as he brought up the mentioned protocols, “I did not find any of the embedded techs that are required to create synthetics.

“Instead, I found,” he selected Aimee’s signature and singled out a singular protein, “this. 

He points at the flashing content, “An element that isn’t located on any periodic table that I am aware of.”

“That is strange. Perhaps it’s a sensor error. How do you suggest we proceed?”

Cheon turned and looked at Jonas and Vausees. “How do you two feel about a snatch and grab on both of these two?” He indicates the signatures of both Aimee and Ethan on the monitor. 

Jonas looks at Vausees with a grin. She mirrors it perfectly back. Cheon saw the look between the two marines and cleared his throat. “Remember, I need them unharmed, and please, for the love of God, don’t kill anyone.”

*** Bastion Inn ***

Jolie looked out of the window as she kept watch. She was unsure why, but something in her gut told her something was right. Not that anything made sense, but she and the rest had surmised that it was definitely due to the rift and possibly an alternate timeline. But how they still were not entirely sure.

“Ethan, you still awake?”

Ethan’s eyes cracked open. He never rarely slept during an operation. Just quick naps between action or watches. “Yeah. You see something?”

“Yeah, a lot of some things. Looks like MACO’s,” she states as she steps back toward him.

He was on his feet and moved to the edge of the window to peer out and swore. “I don’t want to get into a firefight with the locals.” He turned away from the window and pulled on his boots. “Talon to Pike.”

“Go ahead,” Audren’s voice came over the combadge. 

“Gonna need an extraction here.”

“Sorry, Ethan, there’s some kind of interference keeping us from getting a transporter lock.”

Ethan swore a second time in as many minutes. “Prep an extraction team then. It looks like we’re about to see the inside of a jail cell.”

“Understood. Pike out.”

Ethan sighed and looked from Jolie and then to Aimee. “We can probably fight our way out of this, but there’s no guarantee all of us will walk away. We best let Audren rescue us.”

“That won’t be necessary,” came a voice from inside the closet as the door opened, and Vausees stepped out with her hands held out in a non-aggressive manner. The M4 was slung on her back but still in reach if she had to get to it quickly.

Ethan’s hand fell to his hip. He wasn’t reaching for his revolver, but it was within his grasp. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

“Captain Vausees Vax, Second in Command of the 24th MACO division stationed here in San Francisco. The reason for the what you will find out soon enough, but I must insist that you and your group come with me. It’s either that or,” she pauses and motions to the door as it opens, and Jonas stands there backed by six fully armed MACOs, “they can take you. I leave that up to you.,” she states as she lowers her hands and stands there waiting for Ethan’s decision.

Ethan was bothered how she had snuck up on them like that. He hadn’t heard a transporter cycle. He glanced at Jolie and then to Aimee and nodded. After they disarmed themselves, Ethan stood facing Vausees. “Just answer one question. How did you get the drop on me?”

Vausees looked at Jonas. He nodded as he turned and gave an order to the MACOs behind him. Each one reached up and unzipped their uniform tops and pulled down the top of their shirts. A white scar could be seen on each of them. 

“That even includes us, Commander Ethan Sandoval,” came a voice behind them as the MACOs parted down the center and Doctor Kyo appeared in the room. He looked at Jonas and was met by irritated eyes. “Sorry, Colonel, you were taking too long, so I thought the worst.”

“Doctor, you and I are going to have some words soon enough,” Jonas stated as he watched Cheon walk up to Ethan. 

“Fascinating,” Cheon stated as he looked at Ethan.

“Doctor wouldn’t it be more prudent to do this back at the lab,” Vausees said in a low, almost whispered voice.

“Lab?” Ethan demanded. “If I’m some sort of science experiment, just go ahead and kill me now.”

Aimee had followed Dr. Kyo into and stood silently, taking in everything. From her “brother” and now Dr. Kyo’s daughter and finally the familiar face of a woman she had seen many times before staring back at her in the mirror. 

“What the hell?” Ethan muttered. 

Jolie looked at Ethan, and then her eyes were drawn to Aimee and then to another Aimee. She then looked back at Ethan, “Please tell me that I am not seeing doubles.”

Ethan gave Jolie a shrug. They knew this was a possibility. “You Are not,” he said finally. 

The two Aimee’s ignored Ethan and moved within half a meter of each other. They stared for a long moment of silence, each taking in the similarities and differences. PhD Aimee had a small scar over her right eye and M.D. Aimee touched her own scarless right brow. “Bicycle accident when you were ten?”

Aimee-PhD touched the scar feeling subconsciously suddenly. “Yeah… how did you?”

“Because the same thing happened to me. Do you not have dermal regenerators?”

Aimee-PhD shook her head, “I don’t know what that is. I got seven stitches. So, are you are a soldier?

Aimee MD shook her head, “No, I’m a doctor.”

“Anthropologist?”

“Medical. I take it you never gave up on your Indiana Jones and Laura Croft obsession?” Aimee MD asked.

“I did not. What made you choose medicine?”

Ethan’s Aimee shrugged, “I grew up, I think. I wanted to help people, not dig up the past.”

“Your Ethan is alive. What about Liv?”

“Livvy’s fine. She’s in Star… she’s in our military too, just a different ship. We served together for a short time aboard a ship named Europa.”

Aimee-PhD looked as if she had seen a ghost, “That was the ship my Ethan and Liv died on.”

Aimee MD gave her counterpart a sympathetic frown, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Jolie looked at the mirror-imaged Aimee, “I promise she is very much safe,” she stated before looking at the man who looked like her father.

“Doctor Kyo,” she said to Cheon, who looked at Jolie with confusion. 

“Jolie, shouldn’t you be home with your husband?”

“I am afraid that this conversation will have to wait, Doctor Kyo,” Vausees stated as she saw that Jolie was about to speak. “This is drifting into a that needs to be secured.”

Jonas nodded in agreement as he stood there near the doorway. “I agree. And with this being a matter of planetary security, I must insist that our guest be blindfolded for this next part,” he stated as he looked from Cheon to Ethan and the rest of the away team.

Ethan rolled his eyes, thoroughly done with all the theatrics, “Oh, for crying out loud. If we wanted to know your secrets, we would have. Stop with all this cloak and dagger bullshit and get on with it.”

*** Office of Doctor Cheon Kyo Research & Development ***

The room was silent after Cheon had laid it on thick and heavy about an anomaly that he had detected while running a system check on the planetary sensors. He turned and looked at Ethan, “You see, Commander Sandoval, you should not be here, and yet here you are.”

“Talon,” Ethan corrected. “My name’s Talon. Sandoval is my step-mom’s maiden name.” He said that last part in his low grumble. “And did you bring us here to state the obvious? I know that much. I just don’t know how to get back.”

To be continued…

Starfleet Academy – 46 days earlier

The morning sun had broken loose across the Academy grounds, and Carolyn sat on a bench outside the commandant’s office, simply enjoying its warmth as it cast on her face.  She’d graduated early with an Engineering focus and combat certification.  It had become something of great meaning to her over the last four years and it brought her pride that she was the second Crawford to serve in Starfleet…ever!  Her grandparents had long eschewed technology and she’d embraced it with her father, Peter.  She had been told to meet an officer from a ship at this spot and at this time.  She watched and waited.

A man approached with at least a week’s worth of stubble on his chin.  He wore a black canvas duster, grey Stetson cowboy hat, that had seen far too many summers, a decent pair of Wranglers, and well worn but cared for cowboy boots.  Without invitation the man sat down beside her and the duster opened to reveal an old fashioned pistol holstered low in the gun fighter position on his left hip and a standard issue Starfleet phaser on his right.  

“Mornin’,” he greeted in an odd accent not quite found on Earth.  “It’s a bit of a chilly this mornin’, though this is San Francisco.  It does tend to do that.” The man pushed his hat back with a thumb and forefinger and took a deep breath of the fresh air. ”Not quite right.  Never could get used to this salt air, but it’s better than the perfect and sterile air on a ship. At least this feels natural.”

Carolyn gave him a once-over and nodded as she leaned back, “Ensign Carolyn Crawford.  Guessing you’re my meetup.  The pistol is not bad, but I’m a twin Peacemaker kinda girl.”  She gave a nod to his boots, “Those shitkickers aren’t half bad either.  You clearly know your business.”  She leaned forward, “I understand I’m to talk to you about a job.  Something…different than most assignments.”

Ethan didn’t give her a single glance.  He just sat there staring into the morning sky. “Yup, it’s a beautiful morning.”  They sat in silence for a moment.   After a while Ethan sighed,  “You are quick. I’ll give you that Carolyn.  I don’t normally go full cowboy unless I’m on the ranch or in the field,  but I find that it confuses folk.  I don’t much look like a Starfleet officer. Which is more or less the point. So you really don’t remember me or are you just screwing with me? I know it’s been ten years or so, but still.”

Crawford blushed, “Ethan Michael Talon, I had my suspicions when you walked up…but I wanted to make sure.  Ten years is a long time.  Ten year old me remembers that pistol”, she gestured with her chin to his legacy piece, “…mostly because you taught me to shoot with it that whole month you came to visit.  If I remember, Dad was amused when I messaged him.  The rest of the family at the farm…not so much.”  She leaned forward, “You left an impression.”  She looked him in the eyes, “Dad was cagey about what you did for Starfleet…never really felt like he could tell me.  10-year-old me didn’t connect the dots.”  She felt her quiet smile return, “But 20-year-old me…that one’s a bit smarter than that little girl.  I’m a combat engineer and I’m good at my job.  You’re the guy they call to knock some teeth in and send a message.”  She broke eye contact and looked heavenward, “I’m willing and able.  You just gotta give me the word.”

“It’s funny I should influence you.  It was your father that showed me that I could be a Starfleet officer and be a cowboy.  I wouldn’t have my ranch if it weren’t for him.  For the record we do more than ‘knock some teeth in’.. Units like ours were formed after several spectacular failures.  Most notably when Captain Picard was captured by the Cardassians.  Starfleet Intelligence decided they needed people who worked off the books and were highly trained and equipped for those missions.  Officially we’re attached to the Fourth Fleet as a survey crew, but in reality we do very little under the auspices of Bravo Fleet command. If we have a successful mission no one knows about it.  If we fail Starfleet washes their hands of us calling us rogue actors. Rescue will not be forthcoming,  and there will be no awards or even a grave given to our families for our sacrifices.   Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but it’s a big galaxy and there are some bad people in it.”

Carolyn thoughtfully considered his words.  Her father had spoken of his career with warmth, but there were always pieces missing. She sat back on the bench, “Adventure comes in many forms, they say.” She chuckled, “Fighting for the greater good in the grey and in the dark sounds like a worthwhile venture, Ethan.  I’m open to the possibilities you have to offer.”

Ethan grunted at her eagerness,  “I don’t ordinarily pull officers directly out of the Academy.  I generally see the Pike as giving officers who don’t fit into the traditional structure of the fleet a second chance, but we are about to set out without a Chief Engineer and your name came up on the list.  If you’re half as tough as you were as a kid on the Denver I think you’ll do just fine.”

Crawford’s smile grew a little wider, “I’ll do my very best to do more than just fine.” She stood, feeling some relief.  She’d been worried she was going to be meeting some stuffy captain on a stuffy ship doing stuffy duty.  Ethan Talon was far from stuffy.  She suspected his ship was much the same.  “I accept the position…and the risk.”  She cocked her head, “What do I call you anyway?  Ethan? Boss?  Commander?”

“When in uniform we best stick to regs.  When out of it, I’ll leave that up to you, but most just call me Ethan.  Oh, you’re probably already acquainted with two more members of the crew. My little sister Aimee and Commander Cheon’s daughter Jolie.”

She chuckled, “Aimee’s visits to the ranch always brought something new to drink.  And Jolie…girl was a badass back then.  You’ve got some great names in the mix.”  Both women had left an impression on Carolyn.  It was not surprising that Talon had recruited them.  She was getting the impression she was going to be one of the younger members of the crew. She kicked at the ground a little, “Any other surprises awaiting me onboard?”

 “Always,” Ethan chuckled.   “But, I’ll leave that up to you to discover on your own. Report no later than 0800 tomorrow morning.  I intend to get this damned storm thing wrapped up as soon as possible.”  He tapped his combadge hidden under his duster, “Audren one to beam up ” There was a hum of a transporter beam a couple of seconds later and he was gone.

Carolyn watched Talon vanish in the glow of the transporter.  She was tempted to reach out to her father but given the matter of Talon’s conversation with her she instead tapped out a message letting him know that she had been assigned as a chief engineer and would give him details as soon as she was on board and able.  She let out the breath she had been holding.  She needed to pack up her quarters and say goodbye.  The stars were calling.

And she was going to answer.

The Pike was cloaked orbiting the Earth that wasn’t.  Audren Swiftblade pulled the earphone from her Vulcanesqe right ear and sighed. So far communications around the planet had been perfectly routine,  and mostly irrelevant.  There was some insight into their culture.  It seems most of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants were split amongst the Romulans and Klingons with the Romulans seemingly sitting at the top of the heap. Earth for its part never made first contact with that Vulcan ship on that fateful day

Turning away from her console Audren smirked. “You know,  I find it funny the only people in command of a Starfleet ship are not in Starfleet.  I know it’s a tiny Raven-class but still.”

Mikaela looks up from her console, grateful for the conversation Audren was starting. It took her a minute to readjust her focus, but she was happy there was a distraction. Turning to look at Audren, Mika smiled and nodded. “You’re right. It is funny. Though at the same time, it’s nice that this can be a Starfleet ship without adhering to the rigid structure of Starfleet.” Mika glances back at the console, then looks back at Audren.

“There is no equal in the Empire,” Audren agreed.   “Narlin ships are steeped in tradition and most of it is antiquated.  The Royal Guard still wears full plate armor and carry her’koths… It’s a type of sword similar to a human long sword only much bigger.”

“Federation and Starfleet vessels derive much of their customs from the ancient navies that once crossed the oceans on Earth; you might say that Starfleet also has ancient traditions, but the way it’s expressed is modern.” Mikaela takes a breath before looking at Earth, breathing deeply and summoning a memory from her time in the FSA. “Yes; I do remember the her’koths. If I’m not mistaken, its use is both ceremonial and practical in the Royal Guard. It was very intimidating, but at the same time; being around them was almost a dream come true. The members of the Guard were polite, kind, and quite accommodating. That trip was a magical trip, in more ways than one.” Mika blushes slightly, nervous that she’s let too much slip.

“You’ve been to Talaria?” Audren asked with a raised eyebrow. “Of course the war ravaged planet had been receiving  humanitarian aide from the Federation for several years now, and trade was slowly being established between the two governments. It of course helped considerably that there were several Narlin colonies on Federation worlds now too.

Mikaela smiled fondly at her memories. “Yes I have. It happened fairly recently as a matter of fact; I was on the Presidential Detail when the Federation President made a state visit to Talaria, in hopes of strengthening diplomatic ties. It was a challenging mission, because the planet was still recovering from war and there were some who saw our presence there as disruptive to the process, but thankfully, nothing major happened.” Mika sighed then grimaced. “That was a trip the Presidential Detail never forgot. It was a beautiful planet, with idyllic scenery, and sunsets to die for. It was very easy to forget that we were still technically in a war zone.”

“Emperor Magus Stormtalon is a good man, but he… well he did not take the deaths of his family very well, and I’m afraid he has gone slightly mad.  This is speaking as a sitting member of the House of Lords as well as a citizen. The Kethel Lowlands was the most fertile farming land in the whole known galaxy. Green all year long, and you could plant a sword in the spring and have three more in the fall.  Unfortunately the war took that from us. The Govan poisoned the land.  Not that we were innocent or anything.  We had enslaved them for a very long time and poisoned their crops.” She sighed remember the famine that befell Talaria after that. “I do hope you saw Tirisfel Falls in the Forrests of Minith’el,” she said changing the subject.

“That’s what it was called! Yes, I did! During my off-duty cycle, I went horseback riding with one of the members of the Royal Guard, and he showed me the falls. The iridescence of the falls was magical; the way the water sparkled and shone in the sunlight, reflecting back a rainbow in the mist; It was lovely.” Mika’s happy countenance shifts slightly into a more serious tone. “The aftermath of war were all evident in the countryside…the devastation was…” she just looked away, not wanting to describe what she had seen. “That’s an observation the President made as well. I heard him venting about the Emperor’s condition while I was in his quarters on the Normandy.” Mika looked back at Audren, but didn’t want to say more. Though not actively a part of the detail, she still felt duty-bound to the oath she had sworn back when she had joined the unit – “…to serve and protect the Federation President and uphold all laws; to hold in confidence, that which you hear and see, and never disclose….” It seemed like a lifetime ago, and yet…she still felt duty-bound to uphold her oath.

“Presidential detail?” Audren asked.  She was impressed.  Only the best of the best would get an assignment like that.  “What brings you to us? I know Ethan didn’t recruit you.”

“Yes,  I was” Mikaela nodded sheepishly as she spoke. “I was part of the detail that protects the Federation President; at least until that fateful day at the Starfleet Command gala. An Admiral gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse, so I put in for a clandestine transfer to the Pike. I had to go to Starfleet Academy to learn a little bit about their procedures and such; then I came here. The Admiral thought that my skill set would be beneficial to the ops team aboard and got someone to sign off on it. I still miss my old assignment, but I love the adventure and secrecy.” Mika let out a small giggle. “I guess you could say I came here a bit differently than most.”

“Let’s just say Ethan was less than thrilled when he heard Starfleet Intelligence was assigning him an officer instead of someone he’d hand picked for the job,” Audren replied.  “Speaking of which. The away team has been silent for a long time.” She checked the chronometer.  “Twenty minutes past their scheduled check-in time,” her voice had a touch of worry.  Especially since the last communique from them was something about busting them out of jail.

Mikaela nodded gravely, quickly turning her attention to the task at hand. “Why don’t you open the channel, I’ll run the encryption and encoding?”

Turning to the comm station she entered commands, “Ethan, what’s your status.”

As Audren spoke, Mikaela typed commands to hide their signal from any potential listening and ranging posts that were sure to be everywhere. She disguised the comms channel as background radiation, undetectable as a transmission; a trick she had learned in the Presidential Detail training.

“Breathing for now,” Ethan replied.  “Audren, can you download the sensor data we collected on the rift onto a PADD and beam it down to my location?”

Audren paused and gave Mikaela sidelong glance, “Sensor data?  Are you sure Commander?”

Mikaela gave her an “I don’t know what he’s talking about” shrug and turned her attention to her console.

“Very much so,” Ethan replied.   “Also I expect once we disconnect you will not be able to reach us for the foreseeable future.”

“Understood Commander,” Audren replied, “Zebulon Pike out.” Audren gave Mikaela a concerned look before turning her attention to downloading the data into a PADD.  Once the transfer was complete she used the site to site transporter to beam the PADD to their team leader.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Audren finally said to Mikaela.

Mikaela nodded. “Absolutely not. What are they doing down there? If their cover had been blown, there should be tachyon beams sweeping through the area looking for us. Or we should see warships on their way to intercept us.” She checked the sensors for any proximity alerts; nothing. It was quiet. Peaceful, even. Mikaela glanced at the weapons locker, and instinctively put her hand on her hip where her holster had been. She panicked for a second, then glanced over. Her weapon was stored in her console’s type-2 holder, though she briefly considered putting it back in her holster. “Audren,” she finally said, “when’s their next check-in time?”

“Considering I just spoke to Ethan, an hour,” the Hylon woman said meditatively. “It’s unlikely they will be able to detect the cloak considering they these humans are  a good two-hundred years behind yourself.” She tapped her chin thinking, “How do you feel about a rescue mission?”

Mikaela looked at Audren pensively. “A rescue mission? It sounds good on paper, but it may not be the best idea. At least not yet. It sounded like Ethan had everything well in hand, but then again…” she paused and looked at her console, then resumed speaking as she looked back at Audren. “I think we should wait an hour, then reassess the situation. I just don’t want us to jump into something where we’re the ones in need of rescue instead of the ones doing the rescuing, you know?” Mikaela hoped that this was enough to convince Audren to wait a bit and gather intelligence before they both rushed into a situation. From past experience, she had seen how it ends, and wanted to avoid it at all costs.

***Recap***

Dr. Aimee Sandoval stared suspiciously at the man standing before her. She had hung up on Doctor Armstrong, and her finger hovered discreetly over the panic button on her phone. “Can I help you? If you require medical attention, I cannot help you. I’m an anthropologist.”

After glancing at Aimee, Jonas took a half-step back, his hands held up. “My name is Colonel Jonas White, and I’m here to fetch you. I was sent by a civilian scientist you should be familiar with,” he said, still holding his hands up. “Doctor Cheon Kyo,” he stated.

“I am familiar with Doctor Kyo. He sat on the panel for my doctoral dissertation hearing.”

“Is there a problem?” Another woman demanded, approaching from the opposite direction. Rebecca Sandoval was wearing a navy version of the Colonel’s uniform with the rank of Captain. “Are you bothering my daughter?”

~

*** Office of Doctor Cheon Kyo Research & Development ***

Doctor Kyo sat behind a desk in the center of the room as he plucked away at the monitor attached to the desk. He heard the hiss from the door that led into his laboratory and knew that only a hand full of people had the authorized access codes to enter his part of UEC’s compound.

“Greetings, Colonel and Captain,” he said without looking at Jonas and Vausees. “I see that you have brought Doctor Sandoval with you. I sure hope that Captain Sandoval didn’t cause too much fuss about not being able to join us, Aimee.”

~

*** Bastion Inn ***

Jolie looked out of the window as she kept watch. She was unsure why, but something in her gut told her something was right. Not that anything made sense, but she and the rest had surmised that it was definitely due to the rift and possibly an alternate timeline. But how they still were not entirely sure.

“Ethan, you still awake?”

Ethan’s eyes cracked open. He never rarely slept during an operation. Just quick naps between action or watches. “Yeah. You see something?”

~

*** Office of Doctor Cheon Kyo Research & Development ***

The room was silent after Cheon had laid it on thick and heavy about an anomaly that he had detected while running a system check on the planetary sensors. He turned and looked at Ethan, “You see, Commander Sandoval, you should not be here, and yet here you are.”

“Talon,” Ethan corrected. “My name’s Talon. Sandoval is my step-mom’s maiden name.” He said that last part in his low grumble. “And did you bring us here to state the obvious? I know that much. I just don’t know how to get back.”

Now for the continuation…

Cheon looked at Ethan, and then over to his Aimee. “Captain Sandoval please feel free to join us,” he stated as he looked at Vausees to open the door.

Vausees nodded and moved towards the secured door and opened it to find Rebecca standing there.

Rebecca entered with her hands clasped behind her back.  Her face was expressionless… mostly.  There was a nearly imperceptible widening of the eyes and raise of eyebrows as she saw Ethan and then two identical women that resembled her daughter.

Jolie leaned over to Ethan and in a low voice spoke to him. “Something tells me that that lady is shooked by the appearance of you and Aimee,” she stated as she looked over at Rebecca.

Cheon walked over to the Captain and held out his hand, which contained the micro recorder, “Might want to keep your toys out of my lab, Captain Rebecca Sandoval.”

Rebecca scowled,  “I don’t know what kind of game you are playing here, but these people are not ‘toys’ and they certainly aren’t mine.”

Cheon’s face twisted at her comment. “I was not referring to our guests. I was referring to this,” he stated as a small micro recorder appeared between his fingers.

Her face remained placid as she stared down at the device. “Cloak and dagger isn’t something I’m used to doing, and I’m certainly not used to being drug places without explanation. Do please get to the point.”

Cheon leaned in and lowered his voice, “Don’t play games with me Special Agent Sandoval,” his voice stressed the last part as he leaned back to gauge her reaction to his knowledge of her being in a supposedly non-existent department of the Navy. “After all Captain, I know where all the pieces are on the chessboard and thus know how each one is being placed and played; this includes myself.”

Jolie leaned over and tapped a silent message to Ethan on his forearm, ‘Do that woman not look like your stepmother?’

Ethan nodded and tapped back, Yes, but do not be fooled none of these people are who we know.

Rebecca stiffened slightly,  but her expression did not change. She would have to pull up Doctor Kyo’s dossier.  She didn’t know exactly what he knew, and she wasn’t going to expose herself to him willy-nilly.  “Do get to the point,” Rebecca stated letting her annoyance intentionally seep into her voice.

Jolie nodded inside her mind to what Ethan had stated and at the same time tapped back, I have already deduced all of that. For instance, the man that looks like my father is in fact the complete opposite. The Captain standing with the completely outdated weapon is in fact Captain Vausees “Vax” Ves, Commander of the U.S.S Heracles. The last report prior to us getting sucked into this twisted version of our own timeline was that she and her crew had been destroyed by an unknown ship and then the debris was sucked into one of the rifts that she had been closing. The only one that is throwing me for a loop is this time Aimee. Although she is completely not our Aimee she does act almost as if she is…

Sometimes things just work out that way, Ethan replied.

While Jolie is tapping this out Cheon saw stiffening and knew then that he had hit a very raw nerve. He turned and looked at the group in front of him. In a low voice, he says, “What to do with you.”

Ethan stepped forward.  He stood at parade rest with his back ramrod straight enhancing his whole six-foot-three stature. “We are not here to interfere with whatever this is. We were pulled through some sort of interdimensional rift. We just want to get home.”

Jonas looked over at Vausees as Ethan announced this. Cheon looked back at Ethan with a surprised look on his face. ‘I was right.’, he thought to himself as he looked back at Rebecca for a moment before he moved away from her, but not before he stated that their discussion was far from over.

“Tell me more, Commander Talon.”

“Not sure there’s much more to tell,” Ethan said with a shrug.

“They were tied to a major ion storm affecting the Mellstoxx system and surrounding area,” Aimee added.

Ethan wasn’t a scientist and hadn’t thought that significant but nodded in agreement,  “We can provide our sensor data.”

Jolie was about to correct Aimee when she happened to see Ethan play along. After all The Paulson Nebula was not in the Mellstoxx system. She was however curious as to how they would be able to share the sensor data without messing up this timeline somehow.

Cheon nodded and motioned for them to have a seat, he followed them to the semi-circle couch arrangement and took a seat so that he could further listen to what they had to say about their being here.

Ethan sat down with his arms crossed and gave Jolie a look that said this was a waste of time. “It was a hell of a massive ion storm.  It destroyed whole colonies and was a threat to the whole Quadrant.   Something… not sure exactly what, and maybe your scientists can make heads or tails of the data because I sure as hell cannot.   I am no scientist.  I barely passed astrophysics at the Academy.   My job is to wreck things not find answers to the universe.”

A grin crossed Jolie’s mouth as she sat down. She then looked at Cheon. “Pardon me Doctor but is there a restroom nearby?” she asked as started to pretend to fidget around giving off the appearance of discomfort.

Cheon looked at Jolie for a moment and realized that she had to relieve herself. Nodding he motioned for one of the MACOs to escort her to the nearest restroom.

As Jolie stood up she locked eyes with Ethan and with a few quick blinks sent him a silent message of ‘I am on it.’ before she left being escorted by the MACO. Once the door to the restroom closed Jolie looked around for a moment before she noticed a vent cover in the ceiling. After a few moments, she removed the cover and slipped into the vent. She knew she was close to the outside wall of the building that they were in and before long she was feeling a cool airflow and the smell of sea salt from the bay.

Back in the lab, Ethan’s combadge chirped and Audren’s voice came over the line, “Ethan, what’s your status.”

“Breathing for now,” he replied noticing the dirty looks from those around him.  “Audren, can you download the sensor data we collected on the rift onto a PADD and beam it down to my location?”

There was a pause, “Sensor data?  Are you sure Commander?”

“Very much so,” Ethan replied.   “Also I expect once we disconnect you will not be able to reach us for the foreseeable future.”

“Understood Commander,” Audren replied, “Zebulon Pike out.”  A moment later a large data PADD materialized at Ethan’s feet.

Cheon’s eyes widened as the PADD appeared. It was then that he realized just how advanced his guests were. Granted they had the technology but it was untested at this time. ‘Fascinating’

Vausees swung her rifle toward the PADD as it materialized at Ethan’s feet, “What is this,” she snapped out sharply as her finger touched the trigger, prepared to turn the PADD into swish cheese.

“It is a standard data PADD,” Ethan said.

“It’s a tablet,” Aimee added using the 21st Century term.  “Essentially a handheld computer.”

Vausees slung the rifle back onto her back and looked at Aimee with a curious look in her eyes. Cheon saw the look and shook his head, “Captain, it’s like your wrist-sling,” he stated as he raised his left wrist to show the device he was referring to Ethan and Aimee.

Jolie laid prone in the vent shaft as she looked about to make sure that she was clear before she spun around and kicked the vent cover clear of the vent. As her feet hit the ground she dropped as low as she could and began to scan the immediate area around her. When she was convinced that she had not triggered any security alarms or sentries she stood up, with the vent cover in hand, and looked up.

A few moments later Jolie stood in a clearing, leaning against a railing, and was looking over into the bay area of San Fransisco. Reaching over to her right wrist she tapped a holographic icon.

“Pike this is Jolie, come in Pike,” she said in a low tone.

Zebulon Pike

Carolyn checked the engines once more to make sure each piece and part was working as it should.  She’d volunteered to stay behind and keep the Zebulon Pike working while the rest went down to find a way home.  Being in an alternate universe was unsettling for Carolyn.  She’d studied enough of it in the academy to know that personas had a habit of becoming a darker side of their original…and she wasn’t sure she wanted to see or know what her opposite or even her father’s opposite had become.  She’d been spending the time getting to know the old faces and friends while finding out about the new faces…and the really old aliens. Audren Swiftblade was the really old one. Carolyn had not been familiar with the Hylon before this mission and had spent what little of her free time she had catching up on the species.  She did one more check of the ship’s systems and decided she needed to take a walk to the bridge to keep her head clear.  She walked onto the bridge as one of the crew from the planet was reaching out.

“Understood Commander,” Audren replied, “Zebulon Pike out.” Audren downloaded the data to a PADd and beamed it down. “That doesn’t sound good,” Audren finally said to Mikaela.

Crawford slipped over to an engineering console and waited for Swiftblade.

Mikaela nodded. “Absolutely not. What are they doing down there? If their cover had been blown, there should be tachyon beams sweeping through the area looking for us. Or we should see warships on their way to intercept us. Audren, when’s their next check-in time?”

“Considering I just spoke to Ethan, an hour,” the Hylon woman said meditatively. “It’s unlikely they will be able to detect the cloak considering these humans are a good two-hundred years behind yourself.” She tapped her chin thinking, “How do you feel about a rescue mission?”

Mikaela looked at Audren pensively. “A rescue mission? It sounds good on paper, but it may not be the best idea. At least not yet. It sounded like Ethan had everything well in hand, but then again…” she paused and looked at her console, then resumed speaking as she looked back at Audren. “I think we should wait an hour, then reassess the situation. I just don’t want us to jump into something where we’re the ones in need of rescue instead of the ones doing the rescuing, you know?”

Audren sighed. Mika was right.  Finally turning she acknowledged  Carolyn, “Ms. Crawford. See what you can do about penetrating whatever it is that is obscuring our sensors of that compound.   It has to be relatively unsophisticated considering their technological level.  Mikaela, you advise caution and I agree, but that doesn’t mean I will wait for something to happen and then prepare. You have the bridge.”

Crawford swung in her chair to the console and started to work on the problem.  She focused on the sensors and understanding the harmonics of whatever it was that powered the system.  She ran a band scan but opened it up wide enough to take into account older technology.  The computer beeped through the scans.  Still nothing.  She grumbled quietly and went looking for lower-banded and less secure jamming processes.  Her eyes saw an odd pattern as the sensors brushed over the sensor block.  It took a minute longer and the computer trilled in confirmation.  “Got it!  It’s a rotating band blocker that makes you think you can’t crack it…but they only have it rotating between fifteen frequencies.  We’re lucky our sensors can see the cycle.  We can break through it at your command.”

As Crawford began working on the problem she had been assigned, Mikaela was wrapping up her discussion with Audren. “I agree with you on that point. Let me come up with some tactical options to go over in the meantime, so that at the very least we have a plan. We can implement it as the situation requires. I remember something Kate, my team lead told me once. ‘Stay liquid.’ She meant to stay flexible enough to adapt to the situation at hand. It may be useful to put into practice here.” Upon hearing that she had the bridge, Mika stood up and naturally stood in the center, looking at the instruments and seeing others work.

Later…

“Pike this is Jolie, come in Pike,” Joile’s voice over the comm.

Mikaela tapped a few commands on the ops panel. “Kovalev here. Give me a sitrep, Jolie. What’s going on down there?”

“Things are calm at the moment, but I have snuck out of the building that everyone is currently in. I do not know what their next move is going to be but I do have a plan,” she stated. “Beam me back to the ship and have Crawford and Swiftblade meet me on the bridge and by the CIC table.”

“Copy that, Jolie. Stand by. Let me assemble the team, then I’ll beam you up. We were just talking about a plan. I’ll reconnect with you shortly to advise when you’re clear to beam up.” She checks if anyone is tracking the signals. “Coast is clear, energizing now.” Mikaela then taps a few more commands. “Bridge to Audren.”

Audren had just finished pulling on her gauntlets when Mikaela’s voice came over the comm. She turned and pressed the button on the terminal. “Go ahead, Mika. Have you gotten word from the away team?”

“That’s why I was about to page you. Jolie contacted us. She beamed up to the ship a few mins ago, and wants you, me, and Carolyn to meet her in the CIC table. She has a plan she wants to share for rescue.” Mikaela smiles musingly to herself. She had talked some sense into Audren, as riding to the rescue isn’t always the smart thing to do.

After hearing Audren’s acknowledgement, Mikaela closed the channel, then turned to look at the panel’s phaser. She again thought of putting it in her holster, but thought better of it. ‘I’ll get my phasers from the armory’ she thought, as she walked to her quarters before going to the meeting. She knew she was deploying, which was rare enough given her position, but she knew that covert ops have a way of going south rather quickly. She grabbed her backup, a type-1, and stashed it in one of the many hidden pockets her uniform pants had. After grabbing a few things, she headed to the weapons locker, grabbed a phaser rifle and a type-2 to put in her holster, then headed to the meeting.

“On my way,” Audren replied as she cinched her black leather belt around her waist over the white surcoat bearing the Swiftblade Coat of arms.  She slid the curved point-heavy sword home into its scabbard on her left hip and clipped a Starfleet phaser to her right hip.  She picked up a device with a tea saucer gold dish, handle and protruding arms coming off of it and clipped a black leather strap to his and slung it over her shoulder, and slid it under the crimson and gold-trimmed velvet cape hanging from her shoulders.

She took a moment to look at herself in the mirror she hadn’t worn her armor since she left the war and Talaria.   It wouldn’t protect her from heavy phasers or even sustained phaser blasts, but against lasers and projectiles, she was nearly invulnerable.  Tucking the open-faced helm under her left arm with a soft clink of marched out of her tiny quarters.

“Bloody hell lass!”  The voice of Dougal MacDonald exclaimed seeing her in the corridor  “Ye going to a Renaissance faire? What’s with all the wee hardware?”

“The away team is in trouble.  Including your girlfriend.”

Dougal’s eyes widened,  “Bloody hell!”  The Scotsman fell in step with Audren as they headed for the bridge.   Everyone was already there when the duo entered.

Crawford stood from the engineering station, “Reporting as ordered.”  She wondered if she was going to find commonality with Audren and the others who were new to her – making friends had not been a problem at the academy but that had been at the academy.  The speed of the Pike was a very different pace.  Her console was keyed to break the interference system.  She’d also transferred mobile control to her tricorder so if their targets were smart enough to get the system working again, she’d have a chance at breaking it again.

Audren gave Carolyn an appreciative nod, acknowledging her efforts on the sensors as she clanked to Joile’s side, “It’s good to see you upright Jolie.  I had feared the worst.  Thankfully Ms. Kovalev talked some sense into me. I was ready to come crashing in, consequences be damned.”

Mikaela gives a shy look of acknowledgement as Audren gives her a compliment. She’s been observing, but so far, she doesn’t know if she’s going down with the team or if she’s staying aboard, hiding their activities from sensor sweeps and the occasional patrol ship. “I, for one, am glad that Jolie is safe and sound.” She turns to look at Audren and Crawford before settling her gaze on Jolie. “Do you want me down with you? Or would you rather keep me here on the ship?” Her question is direct.

[TAG: Jolie]

“Audren, were you in the holo-suite?” she asked Narlin as she spotted the gear that she had on.

Audren scowled at Jolie,  “I dug this out of storage to bust down the door to rescue you.”

Jolie nodded her appreciation to Carolyn as she placed a hand on the young woman’s shoulder. It was then that she spotted Dougal. “Lieutenant, I am glad that you are here,” she stated as she moved to the rear of the Pike and the CIC. “Miss Crawford, if you would be so kind as to show us the inside of the building from the compound that I just escaped from and the buildings around the compound,” she asked as she leaned over the holographic table monitor. She then looked at Dougal. “What do you make of the situation?”

“It looks like a standard research facility,” Dougal said in his thick Scottish burr.  “You’ve been inside lass. Ye got a better idea of what’s going on in yon facility.”

The CEO shifted to the console of the table and ran her hands over the keys as the data populated in front of them,  She’d disabled the field slow enough that she suspected those in charge on the planet wouldn’t notice.  She’d also snuck in a power short or two as the possible cause which would send whoever they had as engineers hunting for a bit.  For now, they had a full view of everything they needed.  She clicked a few more commands to save the schematics for offline use.  If they were going planetside, they would need to know where the hell they were going.  As her father had reminded her, ‘Always be prepared. The display now encompassed all that Jolie had requested.  “3-D schematic map complete.”  She tapped a few more buttons, “I’ll keep digging deeper to see what I can find.”

“What do you want us to do?” Audren asked.

Jolie looked at Audren as she thought about what Ethan would do. Most of their crew was down there and she knew that this was going to take a tactical scheme to get them all back on the ship. “For now we prepare,” she stated as she thought about what Dougal had said about her knowing more about the compound than them. “I need an upgrade,” she stated as she slipped off her wrist sling and placed it on the table. “We need more information and as much as we dig around from up here I think we need to dig around down there; inside that building and find out what this Doctor Kyo is hiding, if anything.”

“I will take point,” Audren replied.  “I can absorb attacks that you cannot, but I agree we need to get eyes on the ground.”

Ethan stared at Cheon as he went over the information on the PADD. This man seemed to be a scientist, and he hoped that would be enough. Not to mention no one on the Pike were actual scientists either. Dr. Kyo wanted answers? Yeah, well, so did he. Maybe there could be something of an exchange that could be made, and Ethan hoped this sensor data would whet the doctor’s appetite.

Cheon looked over the data on the PADD after having a quick crash course on how it worked. A few ‘hmm’s and ahh’s could be heard coming from Cheon as he continued to absorb the data. He set the PADD on his lap and looked at Ethan. “This is all interesting, but none of it makes sense about how you were found on our planet.”

Ethan was tired of getting nowhere, and Cheon’s seemingly oblivious question was the final straw. “How did I find the planet? How did I find Earth, you mean? The damn planets didn’t move. I know where Earth is. I’m human. I went to Starfleet Academy in this very city! What kind of idiotic question is that? You are dense for someone who is supposed to be running some government research facility.” He stood and slapped his combadge. As expected, it gave the no signal click. He figured they would block communications after his stunt with the PADD. They were a suspicious lot, and to be honest, so was he. Grumbling, he returned to his seat, and in the back of his mind, he was hoping Jolie was solving their problems with a hammer because he felt like busting out a wrecking ball.

Meanwhile

Jolie placed a hand on Audren’s forearm. “Don’t take offense to this, my Narlin friend, but you might stick out a lot with your current setup. Plus, I think a small, one or two man, team will be able to remain more stealthy than an entire fire team. But keep yourself and the rest of the team on standby just in case we are discovered and are unable to escape.”

The Hylon scowled at Jolie but nodded, “Of course. Take Kovalev with you. I believe she will be of use.”

She then turned to look at Carolyn, “Miss Crawford, if you wouldn’t mind taking me wrist-sling and adding a passive scanner to it so that I can walk and not look suspicious, that would be great.”

Crawford nodded, quickly accepted the wrist sling, and set it carefully on the engineering console. She knelt down below and found the engineering kit she had stashed there. Quickly she snagged a tricorder from her belt and went to work on taking it apart. The scanning unit’s power level would need adjusting and the programming function as to how it would scan. Regular tricorder scans were targeted at the space that was being scanned or a piece of equipment. She needed to widen the scanning band as well as adjust the power output. Her hands moved with trained precision – she’d done the exercise of taking apart a tricorder to a timed effort and had nearly won every time in class and the field. Now it really mattered.

Finally, she turned to look at Dougal, “Mister MacDonald, if you would follow me to the replicator, we’re going to both need to replicate current timeline clothing to fit in with this timeline’s Starfleet,” she stated as she moved away from the CIC table.

“Aye, lass. I dinae ken what you have planned, but I will do what I can,” Dougal replied.

Carolyn adjusted the power output and checked the programming function of the scanner device. She slipped it carefully into the sling, making sure to hook and secure it so it wouldn’t drop loose. She routed the power to a battery unit that rested hidden within the sling as well. Turning it over to check, she called out to Audren, “Before you head off, the sling should do what you need now.” She showed her the hidden sensor and explained the changes she had made. “It’ll operate at a range and power in order to avoid detection or suspicion. The range will be enough to get a sense of the room you’re in, but that’s it. Any more, and they have a good chance of picking something up, even as primitive they are.”

Audren tucked it into her belt. “Ingenious. Think you could do it for Jolie’s?”

Crawford nodded and quickly went to work on the device with another spare tricorder. This time was quicker, her hands having done this once already. It was a little more challenging ensuring it was hidden, but she managed after three different placements. She handed it back to Audren, “That’ll have to do.”

Approaching Jolie, Audren slid the golden device over her head. “Take this with you just in case.” She pressed the activation button, telescoping arms shot out horizontally on each side, and four fingers grew to form the arms vertically. Once fully deployed, which only took a second, an energy shield closed the gap with a hum and was nearly translucent with auras of gold and blue along the shield parameter. “The power cell will only last about 15 minutes, but if you use it to block phaser fire, it will convert the energy to recharge the battery. Thay doesn’t work with disruptors, but given that you are dealing with humans, I expect they are using phased energy weapons.” She clicked off the shield, and the emitter arms retracted back inside, leaving only a gold disk with a handle a bit smaller than a dinner plate. Handing it to Jolie, “May Narla be with you.”

Jolie took the device from Audren and looked it over. “You sure about this?” She asked as she continued to look at the Narlin in her eyes.

“I would not have loaned it to you otherwise,” Audren replied. “What is it, you humans say? ‘Use it in good health’?”

Mikaela listened to Audren volunteer her for the extraction. ‘Fork!’ she thought to herself as she activated her type-2 phaser and the rifle she had brought with her. Slinging the rifle across her back, she holstered her secondary phaser and then turned to look at the rest of them. “I assume, Jolie, you want me on extraction and exfil?” she asked directly. “And if I am… I’m going to need to blend in. Because wearing a different Starfleet uniform than the one they have is going to be a problem.”

Jolie looked over at Mikaela, “It might be a good idea for you to change, just in case,” she stated as she waited for her wrist-sling to be given back to her.

Carolyn did one more check with a tricorder, scanning both of them carefully, “We’ve done all we can. Good luck down there.”

Mikaela ran final checks with her weapons, making sure both of them had plenty of power and were ready to use at a moment’s notice. “Alright, Mikaela, you’re locked and loaded. Saddle up,” she quietly said to herself, using the same shorthand Kate had used to get the team ready to move out.

Later

Mikaela deftly moved her fingers over the shuttle’s control panel, guiding it swiftly and quietly through the sensor blindspots. On the heads-up display, the distance to the target clicked. “500 kilometers out, about 5 minutes from the target. Start getting ready!” She called out, then double-checked her holster. She was ready, so why did she feel so uneasy? This flight path was too easy. No patrols she had to evade, and nothing to indicate a real opposition. This didn’t sit right with her. Something was off…her intuition didn’t like this situation one bit. “Jolie, would you come up to the flight deck, please?” she announced through the intercom.

Jolie stood up from her seat in the rear of the shuttle and poked her head into the cockpit? “Something the matter?”

Mikaela tapped a few commands, displaying the radar screen on the console next to her. “Here, take a look at the radar screen. What do you see?”

Lifting herself into the cockpit, she took the co-pilot seat and transferred what Mikaela had found or rather not found. Other than the research facility that she had managed to escape from, she didn’t see anything. Suddenly her eye widened. “Where are the ships, and for that matter, where are the troops?”

“Exactly. I’m not sure what’s going on, but this is too easy. Either they don’t recognize the shuttle and stood down their defenses, or we’re flying straight into an ambush. Either way, we’re undetected for now.” Mikaela started tapping commands to prepare the shuttle to land in a desolate space, about 3 km from the compound, in a spot that was well hidden. “We should probably scout before we make our approach.” Mikaela grabbed her rifle and powered it up, as she powered down the shuttle.

 Dougal approached the compound, stopping at the edge to lift a pair of sophisticated field glasses to his eyes, bringing the perimeter up close. Numbers indicating the range continually adjusted as he focused on various objects. “It’s quiet, lass,” he said to Jolie. “Too bloody quiet. Your disappearance should have been realized by now.”

Jolie couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched even though the area was completely clear. Hell, even the MACOs knew better than to leave an entrance undefended. She looked down at the wrist-sling, and as the next rotation on the passive scan completed and no one but her away team showed up, she had a sudden feeling of dread, but she swallowed it down.

Looking about she turned to face Dougal. Turning her wrist over she activated the wrist-slings holographic and the area was displayed. “What do you think would be an ambush point?” She asked her combat specialist.

Dougal sighed as he switched to thermal imaging mode and slowly scanned the compound. Shaking his head, “I dinae ken lass. There’s bloody 500 meters of manicured lawn between us and the building. Even in ghillie suits, there is no chance of sneaking up to the building. There’s no sentries so I’m certain they have some sort of closed-circuit video. If I was designing the defenses, I would have a series of tunnels to deploy behind invaders not to mention automated defense systems.”

Taking Dougal’s insight she tapped her ComBadge; “Jolie to Pike, Audren.”

“Go ahead Jolie,” Audren’s replied over the communicator.

“Audren can you have the Pike perform a deep scan under the away team’s location. Dougal just brought something to my attention,” she stated as she kept herself alert for any indication of someone having been there.

“Stand-by,” Audren replied.

Carolyn ran her hands across the console, checking to ensure that the scan wouldn’t trigger something below.  It was a risk, but it was one that needed taking.  She tapped the command into the console.  The system kicked the sensors into action as Crawford watched the results come in slow at first and then a picture formed in short order.  She pulled all the data together in a format that Jolie would be able to receive and quickly sent it on its way.

Inside Research Facility

Aimee had seen that look. She had seen it in her own expression. The look of a scientist who finally wrapped their head around a problem and understands a situation. The question was, did Cheon have a solution? Standing she approached the man, “You know what’s going on don’t you?”

Cheon looked at Aimee for a moment and then turned to walk away, “Doctor if you would follow me,” he said to Aimee

Aimee glanced at Ethan who gave her an encouraging nod. Whatever Joile was up to both Ethan and Aimee were sure that that would come to a head shortly. She followed Cheon with her hands clasped behind her back and a scientist’s expression of curiosity.

He stopped near a corner away from the rest of the group. “I do, but if I am correct, your answer will lie here.” He held up the PADD and it showed this timeline’s star chart. A single star was ringed by a pulsing icon. “It’s the Klingon’s last planet, Qo’nos,” he stated in a near hushed voice.

“Qo’nos?” Aimee exclaimed. “How does that get us home? Is there some sort of rift there?”

Cheon shrugged, “I am not sure but we detected another anomalous signature near the Klingon’s and found this,” He turned the PADD to show the USS Heracles.

Aimee considered Cheon for a moment. “I would surmise that the same sort of interdimensional instability is present at that location.   I think I can modify the deflector dish to emit an inverse tachyon beam to open a rift for us to go through. I will have to tune the frequency to our realitie’s quantum signature,  but I don’t think anything on the Pike is precise enough. Unfortunately this isn’t my area of expertise,  but I have been reading up on similar events.  I love my crewmates, but I’m the only one with a science background, and I do need your help.”

“You need to find your missing crewman and get out of here,” he stated as he looked at Aimee with the knowledge that he know that Jolie had escaped the complex.

Aimee shrugged, “That’s hardly a state secret. It doesn’t take that long to use the restroom. Don’t worry, she won’t be wayward for long. She’s either going bust through that door at any minute, or when we get back to the ship, we beam her back.”

“I hope it is the latter of the two,” he says as he looks over at Vausees and Jonas. “They may give off a tough-guy presence, but in general they both are teddy bears.”

“Then we will cross that bridge when we come to it.   Can you lower whatever it is that’s interfering with comms?” Aimee asked hoping she had established a rapport with the man.

Cheon looked at Aimee with a confused look on his face. “What interference?”

In orbit

Sukitha sat in the center seat as she looked at the viewscreen. A bluish-green marble of a planet filled the screen as she sat there. This planet sickened her as it was too green for her liking. She turned her head and looked at her Combat Officer. The look was all that was needed as the two had already discussed their mission to capture the crew and destroy the ship that had eluded them.

Back on Earth…

Jolie looked at her wrist-sling at the Data that had been transmitted to it. “Just as you thought Dougal,” she said as she looked back at her Combat Specialist. “We are currently surrounded, but here is the kicker.” She fully turned and brought up the holographic imagery of their enemy; Romulans.

“Bloody hell!” Dougal grumbled.  “What are those bastards doing here?”

Jolie shook her head, “If I didn’t know any better I would swear that they were here on purpose.”

“We should return to the ship and reevaluate,” Dougal suggested.

Jolie couldn’t agree more. Reaching up she contacted the Pike and then ordered all of the strike team to return to the ship. As she tried to contact the Pike again she realized that all she was hearing was static, “Damn it,” she said under her breath as she looked at Dougal for a moment before trying again.

Seeing Jolie struggle to contact the ship Dougal tapped his own combadge. “MacDonald to Zebulon Pike.”

Nothing but static.

Dougal glanced at Mikaela,  “I hope ye are as bonnie of a pilot as ye claim ta be lass o’ this is gonna be a wee bit hairy.”

Mikaela gave Dougal a sideways glance. “I’ll get us there, no problem” she mutters under her breath. “Strap in or hold on everyone! It’s about to get a bit…interesting!” she shouts to the rest of the rescue team. She then deftly begins flying the shuttle evasively, jinking and rocking it side to side to make it a harder target. Finally, she’s able to break through the interference and barely has time to send out a “get us the hell out of this shuttle before really bad things happen” message before the shuttle’s communications are jammed again. She prayed silently that the Pike had received the message.

Pike…

On the Pike, Audren stared at a Romulan ship…. The same Romulan ship that they had encountered when they first entered this infernal reality. “Carolyn contact our away teams.”

Carolyn quickly tapped on the console and frowned, a cold feeling forming in her gut, “For the love…we’re getting jammed and pretty heavily too!”  Her fingers dashed across the console as she tried to reestablish contact but the console buzzed with a negative response each time.

Audren swore in her own language.   “See if you can cut through the Romulan’s jamming signal.” Sliding into the helm position she entered the blue alert sequence and started prepping the ship for atmospheric entry. “I really don’t want to take us down, so I hope you can get through so we can beam everyone back to the ship.  If not… how does Ethan say it?  Our asses will be in the wind?”

Carolyn growled at her console, “Come on girl, don’t fight me this early in our relationship.”  She played around with the power levels within the ship and each time the computer buzzed at her about how it wasn’t going to work.  She tapped her fingers on a nearby console and searched for the limits on the Raven class and its systems.  She grumbled as she scanned quickly through the various pieces and parcels that governed how the ship ran and how far you could push her.  It took a second longer and then she was back to her console, “If we overload this,” she tapped out a complex set of commands, “…and spike their sensors with this…,” she layered in the commands and programming, “…theoretically the Pike will hold together and not blow out every EPS conduit we have.”

“Any other way?  With that kind of an energy spike, I don’t know if I can keep us hidden.”

Crawford shrugged, “It’s this or we show them our asses…and they blow them up.  I like my butt unburnt.  So…hold onto your butt.”  She tapped the button to engage her command strings.  She watched as each part of the Pike worked in concert and in tandem…when suddenly the Romulan jam failed.  “Jamming down.  Audren, energize!”

“I got transporter locks on Ethan and Aimee,” Audren replied. “I can’t find the others.” Her fingers danced over the console.  Giving up on the others she completed the transporter cycle bringing their commanding officer and medical officer to the ship.

Carolyn continued to work the console as a few EPS conduits on the bridge sparked until one of them blew and began smoking under the pressure.  The CEO ignored it for now.  She had calculated how many of the conduits they could lose and stay alive.  She turned to Audren, “We got everyone?”

“I still can’t find the rescue team… no I found them!  They are on the shuttle.  It appears to be on an intercept course.” An alarm buzzed, “The Romulan ship is powering weapons!” She made a transporter lock on Jolie, Dougal, and Mikaela and beamed them to the ship before dropping the cloak and raising shields. “Evasive maneuvers,” Audren shouted as the Pike rolled left then right. “This is going to get ugly.”

Crawford swore under her breath as she restored the power balance throughout the ship and clicked over to manage the power as things got ugly.

Ethan entered the bridge with Aimee in tow after being beamed aboard.  He expected to see Jolie in command,  but neither she or Kovalev were present.   Instead, Audren was at the helm and Crawford was struggling to hold the ship together and return fire. “Where’s Jolie?” He demanded sliding into the center seat and bringing up the situation map of the area.

“She was leading an extraction team with Dougal and Mikaela back on Earth.  I just beamed them aboard,” Audren replied as she rolled hard to the right narrowly missing a green disruptor beam.

As soon as she materialized on the Pike Jolie was off and running for the bridge. As soon as the door slid to the side she was through it, “Thank you to whichever one of…,” her voice trailed off and then paused when she saw Ethan and Aimee were on the bridge. “Good to see you’re alive, cowboy.”

“Glad to see you,” Ethan replied.   “Take tactical from Carolyn. Carolyn, keep doing what you are doing. Hold us together.”

The Chief Engineer gave a nod as she shifted to her actual station and continued the work on the systems.  Raven Class ships were not Galaxy Class – they were small, compact, and not meant for a long fight.  She quietly hoped they wouldn’t find themselves trying to extend the ship beyond what she could handle.

Audren relinquished the helm to Mikaela and moved over to the communications panel where she normally sat when monitoring the cloak was unnecessary, and thankful for the relief.  She was no pilot,  and Starfleet ships were still alien to her.

“Mikaela we are more maneuverable than that Romulan ship.  Tuck us in tight and close.  This is the one time I won’t hold it against you if you scrape paint off the hull. Jolie fire at will.”

“Way ahead of you, Cowboy,” Jolie stated as all four of the phaser arrays rapid-fired phaser bolts down onto the Romulan ship. The bolts were followed by four quantum torpedoes which also found their mark along the spine of the Romulan ship.

“Moving now, sir!” Mikaela shouts her acknowledgement as she furiously tapped the console, propelling the Pike forward, and  as she was checking the field of fire, evading most of the projectiles, while still giving Jolie an angle to fire weapons.

“Ethan several ships are approaching.  Looks like an NX-class refit, NX-class, and two Daedalus-class” Audren reported. The lead ship is hailing.”

“On screen,” Ethan demanded.

The face of Captain Rebecca Sandoval appeared on the main viewscreen,  “UEC Erebus to unknown Earth ship.”

“This is Commander Talon of the Federation ship Zebulon Pike.” He had to remind himself that this was not his step-mom and chose a neutral tone and conversation.

“I owe it to your father Ethan,” Rebecca said.  “It doesn’t matter if you are from my reality or not.   I still consider you a son. I failed my Ethan, I won’t fail you. Erebus out.” The screen switched back to the stars. Audren found another frequency and played it over the ship’s speakers. “This is Captain Sandoval to unidentified Romulan ship. You are in violation of United Earth space.  Stand down your weapons and prepare to be boarded.”

Sukitha could not help but laugh at what she heard from the human. “Captain I guess you need a reminder of your place in this universe.”

Suddenly the Romulan ship cloaked and at the same time locked its weapons on the four ships

“She’s insane,” Audren blurted, “There’s no way they are going to defeat that Romulan ship.”

“She’s a mother,” Aimee said a tinge in her voice. “I’ll be in sickbay preparing for casualties.”

Ethan glanced down at his monitor and frowned confirming what Aimee had said.  The four outdated and outclassed ships had raised shields,  polarized their hull plating, and brought weapons online.  It was a suicide attack and they had to know it.

Jolie growled when the Romulan ship cloaked, “Audren can you track that ship?” She asked as her hands flew over the tactical console trying to find any tachyon particles, and coming up with nothing.

“Defeating a cloak is more art than science,  but I don’t think these Romulans have been forced by need to develop as sophisticated cloaks as our own.l Romulans. I’ll see what I can do, but there is one way to tell for sure. Wait for them to fire.”

Ethan was drumming his fingers on the armrest of his chair weighing his options. None of it was appealing.  He felt like he should help these weaker ships, but the Pike was only marginally stronger, but still no match for a warbird. “Suggestions people. I need ideas.”

Engineering

Crawford was in engineering, the channel open to the bridge as she listened.  An idea formed in her mind as she went to her console and started running through a few scenarios.  The Romulan cloaking systems in this universe would have been more rudimentary and as Audren said, they were probably less sophisticated than the Pike’s.  She ran a few test scenarios.  It might work.  She tabbed the console, “Crawford to bridge.”

“Go ahead Carolyn,” Ethan’s voice responded.

She tapped at the console and sent the information she had to the consoles on the bridge, “It’s an old trick that only worked a few times before the Romulans figured it out in our timeline…and it was a long time ago.”  She tapped the console, “Using a targeted power transfer stream, we can overload the cloaking system…and I took a few scans before they vanished.  If what I’m reading is right…they went for convenience in installing the cloak emitters snug up against one of the four power energizers.  We overload the cloak, and hit the energizer while their shields engage – the cloak’s done and their shields are down by at least 25%.  Gives us a chance against them with our new friends.”

Jolie looked over Crawford’s idea and then it hit her. “Carolyn,” she paused for a second as she looked at everyone on the bridge, “What is the one thing that we haven’t taken into count,” she looked at Audren, “This isn’t our timeline.”

Using what information that the Pike had gathered from its scans she looked at where the cloaking device was. “For all, we know the Narlin’s could have been the only species to have had the cloaking technology,” she stated as she finished her calculations. “Bingo,” she said as she brought up the power energizers. “They are using a Narlin Cloak, and the power energizers are shielded as well.” Jolie continued to look over the scan, and something didn’t look right. “There is something else here guys. Something that we have only seen once in our time. It looks like not only is this Romulan ship capable of cloaking, but that it can fire while cloaked and through its…shields,” her voice trailed off as she spoke.

“We experimented with that in an attempt to gain an upper hand over the Gorvan,” Audren announced. “It was abandoned because the power consumption of the cloak, shields, and weapons meant neither system functioned adequately. A tachyon pulse should locate them, and a single torpedo would penetrate their shields.”

The Chief Engineer growled, “It’s never the easy way, is it.”  She thought for a moment, “Energizers and cloaks are notoriously problematic.  You can do what they’ve done, but you’ll have had to rig up a delicate balance of power with your weapons, shields, and cloak not to mention sensors and everything else.”  She tapped at her console, “There might be a way to orchestrate a temporary failure of their systems – push everything to the red line.  If they’re using a Narlin cloak that’s not native to Romulan systems – no matter the timeline or reality – it’s going to give them fits if pushed.  Let me see here,” she tapped at her console and had an answer in moments, “We’d need to coordinate with our new friends out there.”  She tapped out on the console and sent the schematics to the bridge stations, “If they concentrate irregular fire on these four points, we can bob and weave, overcharge their cloak while doing a little shooting ourselves…it’ll light up their energizers like a Christmas tree. Even if they drop the cloak, it’s still connected to the power system.”  She thought for a moment longer she called out to the bridge, “Jolie – there’s lots of known exploits with Narlin cloaks in the early days that they fixed once people figured it out.  One of them was the ability to engage the cloak using a reverse polarity signal piggybacked on a communications channel.”

Jolie looked over the data and input the suggestion, “That could work, but we would have less then .02 seconds to hit them here and here,” she said as she indicated two points on the ship. “Even then I don’t think that will be enough, even with the added assistance from our people here in this timeline.”

“Any ideas on how those UEC ships can reinforce their shields?” Ethan added.

Carolyn looked up from her console and quickly pulled up the scans she had on the UEC ships.  They were good ships built by the good people that built them.  What she had to do now was figure out how to push their systems just beyond the red line capacity.  “They can take all non-essential power and throw it at the shields in a supercharge kinda thing.  If they can strap in, they can take out the inertial dampeners, the stabilization systems, lighting, the whole lot.  They spread it through enough EPS conduits the extra powered shields won’t short out…plug in some power generators from wherever they can get them and balance out that incoming energy…you give them the extra time they need with it.

“Understood. Transmit the specs to the fleet. Lasers and phase canons won’t help them but a torpedo hasn’t changed much in 200 years. Audren inform the fleet.  If they have the ability to generate a tachyon pulse have them do so, and have them follow our lead.  Mikaela attack pattern theta-one.”

Bridge

“Aye sir, attack pattern theta-one!” She tapped the consoles and kept the ship agile and maneuverable.

“Jolie, as soon as you have a firing solution hit them with everything we got,” Ethan ordered.

“Copy”, Jolie replied

“I’m picking up the Romulan ship, ” Audren said.  “Initiating the reverse polarity signal.” Almost immediately the sensors lit up like a Christmas tree as the hidden ship became fully visible to the sensors.”

“Fire damn it! Fire!” Ethan shouted knowing that they only had a moment’s window.

Jolie unleashed hell and fired on the two points as the Romulan ship came into view. At the same time, a massive explosion of weaponry was seen coming from almost every conceivable place on the wings, nose, and undercarriage of the Romulan ship. As it fired upon the small fleet of ships from Earth. one of the NX ships was cut clean in half, and the second sustained a massive hole right through its saucer section.

A second volley was aimed at one of Daedalus’ and at the Pike. A nacelle could be seen floating away from the hull of the Daedalus-class ship and it began to tilt to the side as the second nacelle flickered and then powered down causing the ship to enter into a death spiral. The shields on the Pike flared from the intense impact coming from the torpedoes and disruptor bolts but held.

On the bridge, Jolie’s knees buckled from the sudden bucking of the deck and she ended up on the floor for a moment. She was able to get back up to her feet a moment later and looked at the tactical console. “Ethan, we can not afford to take another hit like that. Our shields are down to 6%,” she stated as her left leg screamed out as searing and lancing pain shot up from her hip.

“Mikeala get us out of here! Audren as soon as we have moved out of weapons range cloak.” Ethan said leaping over to the tactical station.  He targeted the Romulan’s sensors and hit it with everything they could as the Pike sped away from the warbird.

“Working on it, Ethan!” Mikaela shouted as she was showered in sparks from the exploding console. She cursed, then maneuvered behind Jupiter.

Using Jupiter to hide them Audren activated the cloak.  After a few zigzagging maneuvers to make tracking them even more difficult Ethan walked to the captain’s chair and pressed the comm on the armrest, “Aimee medical emergency on the bridge.”

“On my way.” His sister’s voice came over the speaker.  “Sandoval out.”

“Mikaela set course for Qo’noS best possible speed.”

After taking a deep breath, calming herself after the adrenaline high, after the chaos of the battle, she nodded. “Aye, sir. Setting course to Qo’nos, warp 5.”

“Carolyn… damage report?”

Carolyn picked herself up from the floor of engineering and dabbed the side of her head.  Her sleeve came back red and she growled as she hustled over to the first aid station and snagged out a bandage and slapped it on the side of her head and lumbered over to a console, “Shields are shot to hell.  We blew four EPS conduits doing all the fancy stuff we did.  Main power is holding on by a thread, but I can get that fixed in an hour or so.  EPS conduits are going to take a little more work but with the holographic crew, we can get ‘em at least stabilized.  There’s a few red spots on the hull but our decks aren’t buckled.  Warp engines,” she tapped at the console, “…can give us warp 5 at the moment.  Give me thirty minutes and I can get us up to warp 8…an hour we can be back to full cruising speed.”  She shook her head, “The Pike’s taking a beating, Ethan.  We’ll get her put back together as we go, but we need to avoid anything aside from orbiting the next nearest starbase.”

“It doesn’t appear that will happen any time soon,” Ethan responded.

Five hours later…

Jolie looked down at the Ops console on the empty bridge. Most of the crew had been relieved with orders to be either in sickbay or their racks. Jolie on the other hand could not be bothered with either. Granted she had taken a piece of the bridge into the side of her leg, but she had had it patched and bandaged hours ago. The pain was still her companion but that was the least of her problems.

Carolyn had been a woman of her word and had worked nearly tirelessly since their escape and the ship was running at cruising speed. However, there was still plenty of work to be done. 

“Bridge to Engineering, Carolyn. The operations console is still showing that the starboard nacelle is running hot. Any word on what may be causing it?” Jolie asked over the intercom

Engineering

Crawford secured the EPS conduit and reconnected the power chips as the unit lit up and the computer informed her that the power systems were running at 85%.  She mumbled something about the size of this ship and shoved it up the computer’s backside but was interrupted by the beep from her combadge. 

=^=“Bridge to Engineering, Carolyn. The operations console is still showing that the starboard nacelle is running hot. Any word on what may be causing it?=^=

Carolyn ambled to a console in engineering, her body feeling all the hours, the work, and the stress of being Chief Engineer continuing to slowly build.  They were the miracle workers, the saving grace, and the ones that got it done – she had heard it all throughout the academy and her father had even warned her there was no greater challenge than being an engineer, or better yet – chief.  The ship was yours to care for, put back together, and keep from flying apart.  She was feeling much of that but had resorted to coffee to keep her going.  She downed the dregs from her cup and slapped it into the replicator.  A steaming cup of coffee soon appeared and she stalked back to a console, her eyes focusing on the problem, “It’s the EPS conduit up there.  It’s putting out an uneven power distribution which is affecting the stabilization of the nacelle.  Give me,” she glanced at her chrono, “…ten minutes and I’ll get it working come hell or high water.  Crawford out.”

She lumbered off, grabbing a kit and a tool belt as she went.

Starboard Nacelle – Jefferies Tube – EPS Control

“Goddamn…who designed this crap?”  She growled to herself, mostly.  They were lucky she was short and simple, otherwise, they’d have had to drop out of warp and do something very delicate work.  As it was it wasn’t a great feeling hearing the thundering of the warp nacelle so close, but as they said, ‘needs must’ or something like that.  She scooted down the tube and found the EPS control.  There were two on each side of the nacelles for a total of 4 – designed to spread out the power so that if one blew, there was a second that could take the load for a short while until someone had to either repair or replace the damage.  She took out her tricorder and scanned, “Great.  A short and a blown conduit.”  She found herself relying on her academy training in tight spaces as she controlled her breathing and kept her eyes focused on the tasks at hand.  She needed to replace the energizers within the EPS conduit and then she would need to repair the short from there.

She shimmied out of the tube and snagged the energizer replacements and hustled back up the hole.  It took her five minutes to pull out the old, and then replace it with the new.  Credit where it was due – her recent academy testing had put her through disassembling and assembling everything and anything she would ever touch.  Before she reactivated it, she pulled the Electromagnetic Synthemometer off her belt and scanned the housing.  A beep and she traded it for a tricorder.  It took another minute to isolate the short and another to replace the chip.  She did one more scan and sighed, “God I hope this works.”  She tapped in the commands to reactive the EPS conduit.  A moment later it lit up without shorting out.  Crawford closed it up and slid down and out of the tube and made her way back to engineering, glancing at her PADD. The readings were returning to normal.  “Finally”, she muttered.  She returned to engineering and tapped her combadge, “Crawford to bridge – the nacelle is returning to normal operating temperatures.  I’ve put a monitor on it so if it goes sideways again, I’ll take another swing at it.

“Good job Carolyn,” Ethan responded. “I hear you got banged up. Aimee’s on her way to look at you.”

Jolie was about to open her mouth to congratulate the chief when she heard Ethan. She looked over at him and nodded. Ethan simply smirked and settled into his chair.

Jolie had left the bridge after Ethan had shown back up. She took to her quarters as she need the rest. It had been hell for them, narrowly escaping being blown out of the stars and now running for Klingon Space. Who knows what else was waiting for them. But for now, Jolie knew that she needed her rest before something else terrifying happened.

Engineering

Crawford stood tapping at the console, her headache quietly thumping in the background of her mind.  She was thankful Talon was sending the team medic down.  She could use a check or two to make sure she wasn’t too broken.

Aimee entered engineering.   He had her medical kit slung over her shoulder. “A little birdie told me you injured yourself recently.”

Carolyn stepped away from the console and revealed the injury, “I would say it looks worse than it is…but I’d be lying.”

Aimee opened her medical tricorder and scanned the injured location.  “You’re assessment would be correct,  though there is a hairline fracture of the underlying bone. It would most likely heal on its own but would be painful until it did. Let’s see if we can’t fix that shall we?”

Crawford sat down in a chair and felt the weight slowly release as she took a chance to breathe.  “For being my first assignment, this ship sure is getting me to learn a lot in a short amount of time.”  She closed her eyes as Aimee went to work.

“Nothing like getting thrown head first into the deep end,” Aimee commented

The CEO felt the healing and with it followed the relief at the decreasing of the pain.  “That…is helping.”

“It should,” Aimee teased. “I’m done. Take it easy for a few days, and call me if anything changes.” The doctor patted Carolyn on the shoulder.  “You did good.  I’ll be seeing you around.” With that Aimee walked out of engineering heading back to sickbay. 

GCIRS Balnag –

Tomarah sighed looking at the report.   They had underestimated the human known as Talon… again.  And they hadn’t expected the human resistance either.  Approaching her Commander she handed the PADD to Sukitha.  “Our damage report Commodore,” Tomarah said simply.  “Also the human ship is of unknown design,  but contains vastly more sophisticated components than that of the UEC.”

Sukitha sighed, “Any survivors from the UEC?” she asked as she looked over the damage report. One of the energizers had been damaged beyond repair, but she knew that was only a minor setback. The cloak on the other hand was irreparable. She looked up at Tomarah, from the report, “When can a replacement cloak be found and installed?”

“Plenty of survivors,” Tomorah boasted. “I was about to order their execution unless you wish to interrogate any of them.  As for the cloak… that’s more of a where than when.  There’s a trading post near Mellstoxx III, or we can return to Rator III. Either way, the solution is not easy. I could put out some feelers to some merchant ships around and see if we can cobble together enough parts to repair it.  Those torpedoes the human ship had… I have never seen anything like them. I suggest we get science and tactical working on ways to reinforce the shields against them.”

Sukitha sat there in silence as Tomarah gave her report and reply. Her thoughts were completely focused on the UEC’s feeble attempt to help the unknown ship that had given them a black eye. It wasn’t until Tomarah stated that there were survivors that Sukitha returned her attention to the present. She turned her attention to her second. “Any Officers?” She asked as she suddenly remembered that Ethan had family within the UEC.

“Several,” Tomarah gloated. “They did not know the power of the Empire.”

Sukitha nodded to her Seconds, comment.

“I will bring their leader to you and execute the rest,” Tomarah responded.

“Before you do, make sure that they are a Captain,” she said as she watched Tomarah walk away. She then yelled after her. “Bring me their XO as well.”

She had an idea to make the Captain’s, Executive Officer an example to try and pry the Captain’s tongue open. I always worked in the past and she suspected it would work again.

Tomarah smirked, “Yes Commodore.”

5 Days later…

Ethan sat nervously in the center seat of the USS Zebulon Pike. The bridge was silent and the tension was thick enough that you could cut it with a knife.  A green planet loomed large on the viewscreen. The planet was surrounded by ships of every shape and size, with the vast majority being B’rel Birds of Prey with a smattering of D7 Battlecruisers and several Negh’var attack cruisers.  Support facilities orbited the planet including an enormous space station capable of housing a dozen large ships at a time. They were deep in enemy territory.

“No indication of detection,” Audren announced from her console monitoring the cloaking device.

Ethan stood and walked to Jolie manning the tactical and operations stations. “Have the defense systems ready at a moment’s notice.”

Jolie nodded as her fingers hovered over the weapons fire icon. “We’re ready over here Ethan.”

“Ms. Kovalev, are you detecting any sub-space instability?”

Mikaela taps commands on her sensors. Seeing the all-clear for negative instability, she tapped a few more times. “There’s no instability per se, but it’s just right for the shenanigans you are all going to do. So, we’re good to go, Talon.”

Ethan pressed a nearby comm button,  “Bridge to Crawford.  Are you and Aimee ready to open a rift?”

Engineering

Carolyn sat at the station, her hands running over the console as fast as she could move them.  The calculations alone had taken up most of the last five days.  She had grown more nervous and more on edge about getting back home as the hours and days had passed.  The universe they had ended up in was so…wrong.  Everything wanted to kill them or poke them or prod them.  For her first assignment, she’d been tossed from the frying pan to the fire and back again.  She was trying to frame it in a positive light – she was learning plenty about herself and the crew she’d willingly signed up with.

=^=Bridge to Crawford.  Are you and Aimee ready to open a rift?=^=

She glanced at the combat medic, “Crawford here.  I’ve just run the simulations on the calculations.  We’re at 90% success rate.”

“I confess, am completely lost when it comes to engineering.  I would have never been able to modify the deflector dish without her help.  I wish we had more accurate readings of our quantum signature.   Even a thousandth of a decimal off could send us to the wrong universe.  I think 90% is optimistic.”

“Anyway to increase our odds?” Ethan asked.

The chief engineer shrugged, “It would take hours to get us to 95%.  I think we have to do this now.”

“Understood.  Our cover will be blown once we initiate the inverse tachyon beam so you will need to move fast.  Make sure everything is ready because we’re going through one way or another.  As soon as Kovalev finds that sub-space instability we’ll proceed.”

The engineering chief nodded, mostly to herself, “Roger that.  I’ll have her spun up and ready to let loose.  Crawford out.”  She turned to Sandoval, “You’re going to want to find something to hold onto when we do this.  Bumpy ride is the understatement of the century.”  She gestured to the equipment around the room, “Strap what you can down…anything loose is gonna be blunt force trauma.  I’m going to get this thing ready.”  Carolyn grimaced as she pushed the Pike’s systems beyond the maximum operating parameters as she entered the commands that would kick off the opening of the rift.  She wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to stay conscious if things went sideways.  Whatever she could do to automate their journey, she was going to have to do.

“What about the holo-engineers? They won’t get hurt from flying tools and whatnot. I’m more concerned about the Klingons. I doubt they are friendly.”

The Chief Engineer wiped the sweat off her brow, “I never expected my first assignment might be my last.”  She turned to the combat medic, “Sorry, I had to say that out loud.  Get it off my chest and out of the way.”

“Then let’s not let it be.”

Later…

Crawford glanced up at the screen and tapped the console, “Crawford to bridge…we’re ready down here.  Routing control of the activation sequence to you.  Once you light the match, there’s no putting out the fire.”

“Thank you, Carolyn,” Ethan replied. He pressed the red alert icon on his armrest and klaxons reverberated across the ship as lights and consoles shifted to a red hue. “Jolie at your discretion.”

A nod came from Jolie as she heard Ethan. “Copy,” she stated.

As she was about to begin to start the opening of a rift a haunting and familiar sound echoed off of her console. Her eyes widened as she realized that it was an incoming fleet, just outside of their FIF scanning.

“Ethan, we have incoming!” she yelled as 14 icons appeared on the monitor, “And they are hell-bent to intercept us.

Suddenly the main viewscreen changed from the abyssal of stars to a woman dressed in a red command uniform with 4 gold pips on her chest.

“This is Captain Vax of the USS Heracles. We are on an intercept course and request that you stand down your attempts to open a rift.”

Jolie looked at Ethan again, “What’s your orders?”

“ ’Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon in front of them, volleyed and thundered’,” Ethan recited.   “Damned the consequences! Do it, Jolie! Do it now! Open the rift and hope it gets us home!”

Suddenly the entirety of the front of the Pike was consumed by 9 Birds-of-prey, 3 D7 Battlecruisers, and one Negh’Var warship at its center; blocking off any sort of escape route. A single and last ship dropped out of warp right over the top of the Negh’Var warship, and glided to a halt; an Argonaut Class Federation ship with the registry of USS Heracles NCC-80555.

“I told you to stand down Commander. As of this moment you are relieved of command,” Vausees stated as she looked off-screen, “Commander Fergouson, take a security team and bring that ship to the main hanger and place that crew under arrest.”

The viewscreen shifted to the small armada that lay around the Pike. Jolie looked at Ethan. “Sorry boss, I didn’t get a chance to open that rift.”

The sound of humming was heard just before the cockpit was filled with three Starfleet Security Officers; one of who had a phase rifle aimed right at the center of Ethan’s chest. Her bright Emerald green eyes looked at him from behind the scope.

“Your move Commander,” Debrah said as her finger lightly touched the side of the rifle.

His hand was on his pistol,  the hammer, already drawn back and halfway out of the holster.  He snarled at the stranger but lowered the hammer and let the gun fall back into the holster. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Right now I am the one with the advantage,” she stated as he nodded to one of the Security Officers who was near him. “Do not resist Commander.”

Jolie, who had been watching all of this, had slowly moved her hand to the small of her back and had grabbed the handle of her phaser when the sound of a charged phaser was heard next to her ear. “I wouldn’t do that miss,” Zyvia said as she held her phaser up to Jolie’s head. “Unless you want to be the first person to experience a point-blank stun.”

Jolie released the phaser and held up her hands. A look of defeat was plastered on her face as her shoulders sunk. Zyvia reached down and removed the phaser that was on Jolie’s back.

“Not quite standard issue,” Zyvia stated as she looked at the customized weapon. She then handed it off to another security officer before placing cuffs on Jolie’s wrists.

Another Security Officer appeared in the cockpit. “The rest of the crew have detained and transported off the ship, Commander Fergouson.”

Debrah nodded as she looked at Ethan, “You will pilot this ship into the Heracles’ main hangar. Try anything funny and I will not hesitate to stun you,” she stated as she kept her bright emerald eyes locked on him from behind the scope of the rifle she held.

“Pound sand,” Ethan said coldly.  “You want to do it, do it yourself. I ain’t gonna help you.”

“You are all the same, in the beginning,” Debrah said before she slid the rifle behind her back and retrieved a pair of old-fashion metal cuff’s. “Are you going to make this difficult, cowboy or are we going to go easily. I’d prefer easy, less paperwork, but either way works for me.”

He smirked at the cuffs, but didn’t say anything.  He simply held his hands out in surrender.  “I don’t mind inconveniencing pirates and the like, but I know when I’ve been beaten. Just answer me this: how did you compromise our cloak?”

“They didn’t beat your cloak, human,” a slightly deep feminine voice stated as a Klingon woman appeared, J’telas. She looked at Ethan with a smug look on her face as a Security Officer secured the cuffs to his wrists. “I did, and it was almost as if you were using a Narlin design too,” she said, “But that is impossible since the Narlin’s were wiped out nearly 300 years ago by the Romulans.”

“It’s possible because it didn’t happen. As you can see I am Hylon and I assure you that my Narlin cousins are very much alive and not extinct either,” Audren stated standing next to Ethan.   “And I’m curious about it as well. Most powers including the Romulans and Klingons have difficulty penetrating our cloaks because of the way it operates.”

J’telas stepped off-screen for a second before coming back on-screen holding up a small device, or rather a peice of a device. “Salvaged this from an Orion Trader that said he picked it up off of a derelict Romulan ship,” she turned it in her hand and looked at it. “Narlin cloak design, probable the internal power supply if I had to guess. Not entirely sure but when we powered it up it gave us one hell of a signal that we then used on our few remaining satellites to warn us when the Romulans were near.”

Audren raised an eyebrow, and Ethan shrugged.   There wasn’t much to say other than they had gotten ahold of the technology and found an exploit.

J’telas shrugged as she tossed the piece to someone off-screen. “Exploit or not it has kept what little of my former life intact.”

“Then I applaud your ingenuity, ” Audren said.