24010212.1333

“Deep space 47, Uss Dragon requests clearance to dock.” Viameli brought the Dragon to a stop at the station’s outer markers as she waited for clearance and coordinates to their berth.

“Uss Dragon, please wait for the Osiris to clear the station. You will be in docking ring alpha ports 12 thru 16, operations requested that you dock on your port side.”

“Understood and acknowledged, holding for the Osiris.” Viameli turned toward the Captain in his center chair. “Sir, The Osiris, wasn’t that your prior command?”

“Yes,” he stood and walked forward to stand between the two helm consoles. “Computer, can you change the main view screen to show the Osiris?” They watched as the view screen zoomed in and focused on a Reliant class ship as it started to undock and back away from the station.

“Aye, ain’t she a thing of beauty Lad. We left her in good hands. Heard she made Lieutenant Mathisson her Exec, good choice. Skagath said as he came over to stand next to his godson and captain.

“Yes, I heard the same thing. Wonder where they are going?” They watched as the Osiris finished backing away from the station and made her way to the outer markers. After a few minutes, they watched as she jumped to warp and vanished in a flash of light.

“Well sir, from the direction they were facing when they went to warp I would guess toward the Breen border.” sustram stated as he watched the telemetry data pop up on his holo displays.

“Hmmmmm.”

“Uss Dragon, you are cleared to approach. Welcome to Task Force Forty-Seven and the Thomar Expanse. Captain Kr’Antren, welcome back.”

Kr’Antren nodded. “Thank you, flight control. Viameli, take us in nice and slow, nothing fancy. First impressions make lasting impressions.”

“Yes, sir.”

Viamelie and Sustram spend the next few minutes bringing the Dragon into the assigned docking spot. “ Captain, We are docked with Deep Space Fort-Seven, docking portals have been extended and are in the process of locking in.”

“Very good,” as Kr’Antren returned to his seat.

Aryanna leaned towards him from her seat/console. “Isn’t it a bit odd that they had us dock sideways? From my understanding, this type of station usually uses the saucer method.”

“I was just thinking the same thing to myself, and you’re right from my experience with DS47 most ships usually dock saucer in, they must have their reasons though. Guess we will find out when we go check in with the Task Force command team.” Kr’Antren responded as he tapped on the internal comms button. “Lieutenant Zaishii, let’s go ahead and power her down to station operation levels.”

“Already in the process Captain, I’m going to have my teams run some diagnostics on the warp and impulse systems. I didn’t quite like the way things felt as we came through the Badlands, nothing wrong per se but she was just feeling a bit heavy if you know what I mean.”

At hearing this Aryanna chuckles and shrugs her shoulders. “Chief engineers and their ships.”

Kr’Antren chuckled.

“Well Ayranna, let’s go introduce you to the boss and see if they have anything to add to the mission packet we received before we left Bravo. Skagath, for what it’s worth, parked at a station, you have the conn.”

“Aye, Lad. I have the conn.” 

24010214.1300 – Deck 2 observation lounge/Command Messhall “The Dragons Den”

“Something different, grab a plate and join us at the table.” Kr’antren pointed toward the buffet setup on top of the room’s bar space, as he sat down with a plate in hand. “This shouldn’t take long. I just wanted to go over the latest on our next mission, so we can start putting our ducks in a row. You should all have received a copy of the mission orders this morning and hopefully have had time to read through them in some capacity.” He watched as the rest of his staff, including Commander Thornton, filled plates from the buffet and took a seat at the table. He took a sip from the tall glass of water in front of him and picked up his PADD.

“First things first, we depart in 72 hours. I want all the crew onboard in sixty, that should give everyone enough time to sleep off anything that they may have gotten into before we depart.” He looked around the table and he heard a few chuckles. “This one is going to keep us on our toes, Ladies and Gents. Per the Brief we will depart from Deep Space 47 and head towards the Breen Border, once arriving on the outskirts of the area that they claim is under their security jurisdiction we will turn and follow the border heading toward what many in the Task Force have started calling the Ultima Thule line, this is the line that marks the end of what the Federation has mapped and explored. More on that in a minute.” 

He took a second to take a bite of his chicken Caesar salad and another sip from his glass.” We have been tasked with a few other pieces during our travels. First, we will be mapping the region as we travel taking note of anything out of the norm and if deemed we will explore the anomaly a bit further. Second, we have been tasked with launching three communications and sensor arrays, this is the tricky piece as we expect the Breen confederacy to not be very happy about this. But we need the arrays to help the Task Force communicate and to know what is out there. If we run into any trouble the USS Osiris is also in the area conducting patrols, though I hope we won’t have to call for help.” A few more chuckles from around the table. “Commander Thornton, please get with Aryanna to discuss a few operational points during these tasks.”

“Will do.” he sat back and nodded toward the Executive Officer seated across from him.

“Third we have been asked to conduct a second contact. Due to this, it looks like we will be taking on a diplomatic officer; who from what I understand by reading their files has completed a first and a couple of second contacts in their career as part of diplomatic teams.” He looked around the table to see if anyone had any questions so far.

“Sir, from what I read the planet and the system it resides in sits just inside the Breen security area, and during first contact, there were signs of them being subjugated by the Breen. Do we have any further information since then? Could we be looking at a prime directive issue? “ Lieutenant Yatokii asked from the far end of the table.

“That last one was the first question I asked when we were briefed by Task Force operations. I was informed that we have been permitted to offer assistance as we can up to the point of breaking the Prime Directive. If they ask for that type of help we are to immediately pull back and contact Task Force command for further directions. From my understanding, they were accepting of the federation during first contact but were also not very forthcoming in the information or asking for any assistance due to the Breen confederacy being on their proverbial doorstep and having already been working on subjugating parts of the planet, which was three to four years ago. So we can expect things to have changed and probably not for the good.”

“Commander Thornton, this one may be a good time to use one or both of those Arrows, see if we can get a picture of what is going on before we send in the second contact team.”

“I was going to suggest that when I talked to the Exec. sounds just like the type of thing those ships were made for. I’ll start prepping a couple of crews on the mission.” he looked over at Scamandrius, talking while waving a chicken leg in the air in front of him. “Can we get a couple of your intel folks to join my crews, I have the flight crews just not the specialists.”

Scama looked at the commander and blinked a few times as the lens over his singular eye tried to correct itself and focus. “Yes, I can do that. Of course, I will be one of them. Two or three per crew?”

“Two will work. We have the room but I don’t think the mission will need more than that.”

Scamandrius nodded and made a note on his PADD.

“Now onto the good stuff, don’t expect to be coming back here anytime soon folks. We have been tasked to go beyond the Ultima Thule line. Task force command wants a better understanding of how far the Breen confederacy stretches into that area. We will keep the same distance from their known or assumed borders and work things from there; plan on lots of mapping and exploring into and around the confederacy border and surrounding regions of space.”

Skagath took a long sip from his glass, washing down the fried chicken that he was eating. “Finally, back to exploring like the good ol’ days. Miss those days. Never knowing what the next day held or better yet who would pop up wanting to shoot first and ask questions second. Aye, the good ol’ days.”

A round of chuckles and a raised glass from Commander Thornton followed Skagaths comment.

Kr’Antren finished another bite from his salad, looked at his PADD, and continued. “That’s all I have for right now, Aryanna or myself will send out more detailed departmental mission orders as we get more information over the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. For now, Lieutenant Zaishi make sure we have everyone in engineering up to speed on deploying those new platforms. Lieutenant Sustram, get all the information you can on where the Breen Confederacy is calling theirs and how far they are claiming security rights. I want us to ride the very edge of that line, not cross it but close enough that if someone on board sneezed it would push us across. If you catch my drift. Lieutenant Scamandriud, help Lieutenant Sustram with whatever information you can get. Oh one more thing Lieutenant, while you’re at it, see if you can get the latest and greatest from the Atlantis. 

Lieutenant Zaishi nodded and looked at her PADD “ Shouldn’t be too hard, Captain. Looks like these are the basic setup with frequency amplifiers and subspace repeaters with a short-range scanning capability and a space weather/storm tracking system.”

“I’m going down to the new stellar cartography lab right after this captain. I’ll have us riding as close as comfortable to that line.” Lieutenant Sustram stated between bites of what looked like a pasta dish of some sort with chicken fried steak.

Lieutenant Scanndrius nodded and replied with a low grunt as he made a note on his PADD.

Aryanna stood and placed her plate and glass in the replicator’s bin, pushing the button to have it rejoin the replicator system stores. “Captain, if it’s ok with you. I’m going to go see if I can find us a diplomatic officer that we can deal with before they send us one of those snobby, look down their noses at the rest of us types.” as she picked up her PADD, receiving a nod from Kr’antren, and departed the Dragons Den.

24010214.1430

After visiting the Task Force Personnel department and being pointed toward the Diplomatic personnel offices, Aryanna arrived to find a well-appointed set of offices and meeting rooms with a slightly older human lieutenant manning the console located just to the right of the department’s entrance.

“Welcome to the diplomatic office of Task Force forty-seven, how may we be of service?”

<< ”Great, just the type that we didn’t want to find. Please tell me he is not the only one here” 

“I hope not, there has to be more in here right?”

“For your sake, I hope so” >>

“Yes,  I’m Lieutenant Commander Rigras of the USS Dragon. We have been assigned a diplomatic officer from this office and I wanted to come and meet with the possible candidates.” As she handed him her PADD showing the orders for an officer to be assigned.”

“Oh, I see” as he sat a little straighter and pushed up a pair of spectacles on his nose.” as he took the PADD and looked over the orders.

<< ”Not in your life, pal.” >>

“Well yes, yes Commander. You have come to the right place. Though at this time there are not many officers available for orders to a new post. Very few, in fact, maybe only a couple. To tell the truth.” he returned her PADD to her.

“Hmmmm, and are they here today?”

“Yes, they are. As you can see I’m assigned to this desk so I would be more than happy to fill the slot and then there is “ **crash, bam, bam, bam, bam** “ Lieutenant Meadow.” he winced as he said the name.

“Are you not going to go check on them, Lieutenant?”

“No, ma’am. I am not. Let’s just say that she has a very, how should we put this? Abrasive, rough around the edges, harsh, and downright undiplomatic form of diplomacy. If that’s what you want to call it.” shaking his head and clicking his tongue. “Yes, very rude and very undiplomatic. Still not sure how she passed her exams.”

<< “Ahhh, but she did.”

 “I was just thinking the same thing.”>>

“ Ok then, Lieutenant. Sell me on why I should choose you.”

“Lieutenant James, Bartholomew.”

Aryanna quickly typed into her PADD, half listening as she pulled up his records.

<< “Yeeesh, how mundane can you get? This guy was born into this field. No wonder why he has that arrogant attitude. First in his class, three first-contact missions and four secon-contacts. But it begs to be asked, why is he here behind a desk?” >>

Aryanna held up a hand to stop him from talking. “One question lieutenant. Why are you here behind a desk? Looking at your records you would be a captain’s dream diplomatic officer if not on some admirals staff.”

“Well commander, that’s a good question and one I often ask myself while I’m sitting here reading these reports all day/ I haven’t the foggiest idea why I am not on a ship or as you said yourself on an admiral’s staff. You see my records, spotless, and as you can see I’ve done quite well for myself.”

<< tongue clicks from Rigras “I bet I can tell you why he’s here and not out there. Look at who turned in those reports, it wasn’t the captains on the ships, was it? Nor was it his fellow diplomatic officers. I’m willing to bet you will see his name on all of them.”

“That’s a bet I’m not going to take you up on.” >>

As Lieutenant James continued to talk about his stellar past, Aryanna feigned listening to him as she made her way toward the room where she heard the commotion earlier. Sticking her head in the door she saw a slightly older but still youngish-looking human female with long black hair sitting at a conference table facing two view screens with a Klingon and Ferengi delegation, one on each view screen. In front of her were a broken pile of glass and several drinking glasses. She quietly entered and stood along the back wall. 

“I do not care about your rules of acquisition Mr. Brerr, the fact of the matter is that Mr.Budrahk had established his business first on the Eos station. Now we can either figure this out so that both of you can run a business on the station or the federation, as the station’s owner, will be forced to decide on who stays and who must go. I do not want to have to make that recommendation to the station’s Captain. So gentlemen, what do we do? The proverbial ball is in your court.” 

Aryaanna tilted her head as she thought she heard something weird,

<< “ Did you hear that too? She was speaking in both languages at the same time, how?” >>

Aryanna took a second to take a better look at the young lady, noticing a few small blinking lights from around her neck she let out a low chuckle. << “ Her neck, she has what I could only guess is a cybernetic attachment, has to be how she was able to speak two languages at the same time. Wonder what the story is behind that, as it does not look like a temporary piece.” >>

“I was here first, His contracts were placed to force me out of business. He must tear them up and offer me recompense for the profits I have lost.” The Klingon said in a low guttural manner.

“Uh, uh ahhhh. According to rules 17, 52, 53, 69, 219, and 292, I’m in the right. Not my fault that this Klingon didn’t make his suppliers sign contracts. No contract, no proof. We all know that a handshake can only go so far.” The Ferengi sat back and took a drink of a blue liquid from a glass.

The Klingon let out a boisterous laugh “Did you forget about rules 290, 192, 89 worm?”

“Nope, I considered those when I started my business,  that’s why I had my suppliers sign contracts. It’s not my fault that they were your suppliers before then, now they are mine.”

The lieutenant started to type something on her console bringing up a list on a third screen. “Hmmmmmmmm, so this is about logistics not about the businesses themselves being similar to one another. I may have a solution, Mr. Budrahk you should be receiving a message from me. These are a list of companies that are looking to expand their merchandise into other areas. I’m quite sure that they would be amiable in coming to a workable logistics solution if you reach out to them. 

“ But, but, but… That’s not fair.”

“Why not? You took his suppliers and I am supplying him with a list of people I have dealt with and helped in the past. Not my fault that you did not do your homework beforehand, after all everything is fair game in business is it not.”

“ But, but , but.. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh” the ferengi’s screen went black.

“ Well Lieutenant Meadow I think that answered that, I will reach out to these folks today.”

“ Mr. Budrahk, you will notice that I highlighted a few of them. Those are the ones whom  I think will have something close to what you were being supplied with before. Though I think you will find some of the other ones more than happy to work with you on their merchandise. And word to the wise have them sign some sort of contract, just so we don’t have to go through this again in the future. “

“Thank you Lieutenant. I will also talk to the station operations officer about moving my location so that my business is as far as possible from that Ferengi worms business. Had my eye on another spot originally anyways. Lieutenant, I believe you have an audience.” The klingon nodded toward Aryanna as his screen went black.

The lieutenant turned around with a bit of a shudder, realising someone had been behind her for a few minutes at least could be a bit unnerving to some including her. She pulled a piece from behind her ear and reattached it to a spot on her neck piece.

“Oh, ummm hello commander” as she noticed the pips. “ How can I help you?”

“ I’ve only been here a few minutes, nice work on how you handled the two of them though. Nice thinking on your part to offer new suppliers to the Klingon. Though I originally came in to make sure everything was alright when I heard some noise from this room.” Aryanna pointed to what she guessed used to be the drink pitcher on the table.

“Yaaa, that wasn’t one of my best moments, but sometimes those Ferengi can get under your skin with their attitude towards folks of the opposite sex. So how can I help you? Doesn’t look like you need something solved diplomatically or else you would have stayed out front with that pompous ass of a lieutenant.” 

It took a second for Aryanna to realise that what she was hearing was emitting from the neck piece and that there was a very slight delay between the mouth moving and the sound emitting from the device.

<< “hmmmm sounds like someone else I know, doesn’t she?” >>

“I’m Lieutenant Commander Rigras First Officer on the USS Dragon. I’m here because we have had a new diplomatic officer slot added to our staff. Task Force personnel pointed me in this direction so here I am. As you can probably guess I was not impressed by the lieutenant out front.”

“I would question it more if you were, commander. Lieutenant Bearsong, Meadow.” as she picked up her PADD and took a seat on the edge of the conference room table. 

“Hmmm Lieutenant Bearsong, Meadow.” she typed the name on her PADD. “hmmmm ” raising an eyebrow. “ Doctor of Psychology with a secondary degree in counselling from the academy. Admirals diplomatic staff as an ensign. Speaks 26 languages.” looked up at the lieutenant and then at the neck cybernetic piece.

“Yes, it helps, commander. However I was quickly grasping Vulcan and Klingon while at the academy before the accident. A few others came quickly after learning those two.”

“Hmmmmmm, don’t see much in your records about that. Care to elaborate?”

“Not if I don’t have to, commander. It was one of the scariest times of my life.”

Aryanna held up her arm and pulled off the glove. “ Tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine.”

“Maybe, if you offer me the slot. I see here that you do not have a counsellor on board.” As she spun her PADD around to show the Dragons current manning report. Diplomatic officers are usually second fiddle on most ships, I want to feel as part of the crew so that when the time comes and I have to put on the diplomatic officer hat. Want people to see me and know that I’m not bullshitting them when I say something.”

“I can understand that. Would you be willing to fill both slots? The counsellor slot will be a very busy one, though i’m sure we could work on giving you a small team that could help in both areas.”

Meadow looks up at the ceiling then back down at her PADD. “Hmmm, a team of four plus me. Would need a Yeoman and three diplomatic corps crew. I can handle the counsellor stuff. It’s the diplomatic stuff that will become time consuming. I can give you a few names from this office.”

Aryanna looked at her PADD. “We can do that, and yes I’ll take those names if it means you are accepting the position. Please do not make me have to go back out there and talk to that other lieutenant, I bet he hasn’t even realised I left the room and is still talking about himself.”

“Yaaaa, he does have a tendency to do that, three quarters of it is bull shit though.”

“I figured, soooo?”

“I accept the position, commander.”

“Good, good. Welcome to the team. I’ll send you a copy of your orders now so you can transition over to the Dragon, Captain wants all crew onboard in”  she looked at her PADD. “ roughly fifty-eight hours, we depart in seventy. Just to keep you on your toes, we have been tasked with a second contact along the Breen border, so that should give your new team a starting point to work towards over the next few days. The Captain and I will fill you in on the particulars when you report onboard.”

“Great, the Breen confederacy. This should be interesting.”

“Indeed, Care to walk with me to the task force personnel office so we can put in the order requisitions for your team.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

24010217.1230

Kr’Antren tapped the internal comms button on his console. “Lieutenant Zhaishi, Captain Kr’Antren. Let’s light the fires and kick the tires, time to hear this Dragon roar.”

“Acknowledged, sir. Bringing the Warp core up as we speak.”

Many of the consoles and screens across the bridge seemed to come alive, barely noticeable to most but to those that worked on the bridge they could tell that the ship was coming to life.

Kr’Antren reached into his pocket and felt the velvet bag and what was held inside, pulled it out of his pocket.  Reaching into the bag he pulled out a decently sized ring that was held in the hands of a long sinewy dragon. Looking over at Aryanna showing it to her. “Borrowing an idea from Atlantis. Seems to work in their favor and we needed some sort of new tradition/good luck charm on the dragon. This doesn’t leave the bridge. We will hand it over to whoever has the conn at the time. Who knows what will happen if the dragon is not kept in its lair.”

Aryanna nodded “Sounds like something the crew can get behind, may the dragon’s wrath come down on whoever carries them off the bridge. Always believed that ships should have some sort of lore and tradition onboard, they add to the ship’s mystique.”

“Indeed”  Kr’Antren stood and put the dragon back into his pocket, patting it to get used to the feel of it.

“Lieutenant Viameli, request permission to undock and depart Deep Space Forty-Seven. Lieutenant Sustram, plot a course for point alpha, warp seven.” Kr’Antren looked around the bridge as he stood and then sat back down.

“Lt Scamandrius, anything new from the Osiris?” He spun his chair sideways to see his new intelligence officer.

“Nothing new since yesterday’s report, captain. They have noticed more patrols of Breen escorts and frigates in their claimed border/security regions. I would have to agree with their assessment. Placing those arrays is going to draw attention to us and the Task Force.” Scama looked at the captain through a holo display of the latest scan data from the Osiris. Looks like there may be a patrol near point alpha when we get there, wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they are expecting us.”

Kr’antren spun his chair to look over at his new CDO/counselor. “Thoughts?”

Well, Captain. So far the confederacy has kept to their side. However, as we both claim rights to what they consider their security buffer we could expect a tag-along or two. Especially given that part of our mission from what I understand is to deploy communication and sensor arrays. If they have heightened their presence in that region, being Breen, who knows how they will perceive the addition of such arrays even if we deploy them on this side of their security zone? If I may make a suggestion sir.” She pulled up a holo map over her console. “I would move the deployment location to this point here.” She highlighted a point with a yellow pulsing dot. “It’s a bit further away from the security zone than originally planned, but it should be far enough away to not raise any eyebrows behind those masks of theirs.”

Kr’antren nodded and took a step closer to look at the location on the map. “Lieutenant Zolitia, would this new location work for us?”

“Looking at it now, captain. Yes, yes it should work. The repeater will reach and the weather arrays will still reach a significant distance into their security zone. I would have to agree with the counselor, better to move it than risk them deciding that it has other uses and come looking for us later.”

Kr’Antren turned and looked at Aryanna. “I agree with them both. Besides with the influx of ships in the Expanse, I’m sure we will have a few Parliament classes that could come and move the array in the future if needed.”

“Good point. Lieutenant Sustram, make the change to point alpha. I’ll inform the Taskforce command of the change. Anything else?” he looked around the bridge seeing heads shake or hearing “No, captain” from his staff he sat back down in his chair. “Ok then, Lieutenant Viameli, let’s spread her wings shall we.”

“Yes, sir.”

Over the next several minutes the Dragon disembarked from DS47, making its way past the outer markers, and entering warp toward the Breen confederacy.

**********************************************

24010217.1700

“Ladies and Gents, we have a part to play in the upcoming mission. We will be arriving at point alpha in roughly thirty-six hours. Upon arrival, we will deploy Blue to conduct a perimeter patrol followed by red and green each six hours apart. Black will be working a secondary mission that Captain Kr’Antren just gave us, we will be conducting quick long and short-range scans using our two Arrows.” he nodded toward his XO, who typed something on his PADd dimming the squadrons ready room lights and brought a map of the area up on the main screen.

The three wings will deploy from the Dragon at their assigned time, jump to the patrol zone using warp two, the coordinates given to you by Lieutenant Sustram or his designated relief then conduct circular perimeter patrols. Each ship will be fully loaded with photon torpedoes. The Rule of Engagement is this. You will not engage unless you are engaged. If you can get back to the Dragon before engaging then do so. The Breen have stepped up patrols in this sector using frigates and escorts. You should find their data/specs for them on your PADDS along with silhouettes for recognition.” Commander Thornton stomped twice with a foot on the deck, looking at the officers in front of him

“While that is ongoing black will have another mission. We are going to conduct some sneak peeks into what Breen consider their security recognition area. We will conduct a Zig zag pattern alongis two axis.” Two patterns appeared on the main screen. “Speed will be our ally on this one ladies and gents. We will pop up on the designated points and conduct a quick, but full, long, and short-range scan. We will then collect the data and move on to the next point. ROE is simple. We do not engage unless it is a life or death matter, We will use the Arrows speed to get us out and back to the Dragon. Any questions?” looking around the room. “That is all then, dismissed.”

24010218.0800

Shoji, Doc to most on the Dragon, had just received the medical files on Lieutenant Bearsong, Meadow. Having noticed the cybernetic implant based around the neck of the lieutenant she was curious about the story and why the Lieutenant had not opted to have it repaired via more modern methods. Tapping on her combadge “Counselor, Doc M’gok, could you please join me in my office at your earliest convenience.”

“Yes, Ma’am. I’m in my office currently finishing up looking over some files. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes, just let me finish up this one I’m currently looking over.”

“No rush, counselor. I understand you’re a bit busy having just come on board and wearing multiple hats especially with our currently assigned mission.”

A few minutes later the Doc office door beeped as someone on the other side was asking to be admitted. “Enter. Counsellor Bearsong nice that we finally get to meet. Get a drink if you want. This may take a few minutes.”

Meadow stepped up to the replicator. “Green tea with honey, Iced, large” Taking the large glass she took a seat at one of the chairs at the doctor’s desk.

“I’m gathering this is not a purely social call Doc, and I’m going  to guess you have questions about what happened and why I have opted to stay with the cybernetic versus getting it repaired.”

Doc sat back in her chair steepling her fingers. “Nice and to the point. So what is the story? Sure I can read it in here “She tapped on the PADD on her desk “But I would rather hear it from you.” 

“I don’t remember much from the accident but I can tell you basically what you would read in the file and maybe a bit more. It happened during my second year at the academy during wilderness survival training. I was out late at night, can’t remember why, I took a wrong step and went down the side of a quite rocky raven. From what I have been told, sometime during the fall I landed awkwardly on a rock that crushed my larynx. When the rest of my class and instructors found me the next morning there was a bobcat with a cub chewing on my neck. Still not sure what attracted them to me, but I have my thoughts and beliefs. Anyways the bobcat and her cub had done enough damage to my throat that it had reopened my airway somehow by some miracle they had not started to go to town on me yet.” She took a sip from the glass.

“ I was taken to a local hospital where they performed surgery on me but did not have the capabilities of fixing my throat and Larynx by modern standards so they fitted me with my first cybernetic implant till I could be moved to the hospital at the Academy. As you might expect, the process took some time. Can I ask you something, doc?”

“Sure, You’ll find I do not hold much back, nor am I one for necessarily controlling what comes out. Some would say that I have terrible bedside manners for being a doctor.” she chuckled after saying that and then waved it off with a hand. 

“Do you think that it could be possible that things happen for reasons? I felt like while I was on the bottom of that raven I was there for a reason. The elders say that during that night I went on a spirit walk and during that walk, I learned what my purpose in life was. Growing up on the reservation in Arizona and being raised in the culture I believe what they say is true. I have to, don’t I? I mean I could have easily died multiple times that night and in the days that followed, but here I am. Alive and kicking. “

“Hmmmmm, yes I believe that at times things happen for reasons. I have my own stories that would fall into that category. Someday, we will have to reverse these roles and You’ll be sitting here and I’ll be sitting there and we can get into my story. But for now, we are discussing you. So why stay with the cybernetics?”

Meadow shrugged. “It feels like the right thing like this is what I am meant to be. It took a year to get me straight both mentally and physically. Crap, it took almost another year before I would speak in public. That’s not easy to do at the academy you know. Had to take the year off then finish my second year and go from there. During that year I changed my course and set a goal of becoming a psychologist, to help those who have gone through stories like mine.” a long drink from her glass. “But to answer your question, I haven’t had my throat fixed as I firmly believe that this is how and who I am supposed to be. We could go back and forth all day long Doc, but my beliefs will still stand firm. I am here today like this because this is where I am supposed to be, having this conversation with you.”

“Well, ok then I won’t try to give you the typical speech then. Would you mind if I did a quick once-over for my records? Make sure there is nothing further I need to watch for in the future.”

“No, go right ahead doc.” Meadow reached around the base of her neck in the back and hit a button that allowed the implant to open and detach from her neck.

“Ahhhh I see, interesting design.” As she took the neckpiece to give it a look over. “Much like scales on a lizard or fish allowing you a full range of motion. Whoever designed this is quite good. 

Meadow nodded in reply.

Ok, so can you show me the full range of motion?

Meadow nodded, shook her head, and turned her head and neck from side to side. Moved it from side to side and ended in big and small circles.

“Very good” The Doc stood and came to stand behind Meadow feeling her neck and her muscles around the throat area. “Nice work here. Can you cough for me?”

Meadow let out a cough

“Swallow? Breath in? Breath out? Clear your throat? Chew?” as they ran down the gambit of usual tests. “They did good work, I don’t feel any serious residual scarring or muscle tightness.” she went back to her seat and Meadow reattached the cybernetics.

“Thank you”

“Aryanna mentioned a secondary piece, may I ask what it’s for?”

“Oh that, it helps with vocalizing some of the harsher languages.” She reached toward the right side of the neckpiece and unlatched a little pad that she then attached behind her ear on the bony part. In Klingon “with some of the harsher languages, the muscles can’t quite get the sounds right so this uses the vibrations from the bones to help create the correct tones and words.”

“Ahhhhhh, I was wondering why you would need that piece,” Doc replied in Klingon.

Over the next thirty minutes to an hour they sat and made small talk between two medical professionals, one being new to the ship trying to gather as much information about her new crew and ship as possible the other learning about their new counsellor/CDO and what she brought to the table.  

24010218.0940

Chief Thorn sat at her desk with what she had penciled in on her schedule as the 1st Morale and Recreation meeting. 

“Sir, I’m an old hand at this sort of thing but I’m open to ideas, seeing as we are starting from scratch I think we need to schedule some regular events for the crew to get behind. I always like to use a monthly or bi-weekly idea for events that will be ongoing. Special events I have always felt should be something a few months apart. For now everything how’s on the board and we can whittle it down from there.”

“That seems logical to me, Chief. Being a Vulcan my idea of fun may not be the same as the rest of the crew so I will have to go off of suggestions from my fellow engineers.” The young Vulcan ensign picked his PADD up from his lap and started to read.

“An intramural boxing tournament, intramural basketball league, intramural tug-of-war, game nights, movie nights, a running club, trivia nights, something karaoke I’m not sure what that is exactly, a casino night.”

A middle-aged human woman in a science blue tunic wearing the rank of a petty officer looked up from her notes. “I have many of the same ideas on my list though I do have one suggestion of softball, though I don’t think we have the room for that one onboard.” she shrugged her shoulders.

Chief Thorn sat nodding as she took notes and the events appeared on her office’s view screen. “Hmm, those are all doable. Sporting events should be on a rotation for a set amount of time, the rest of the items can be regularly scheduled events. Shall we start with the sporting events first? a Set a schedule and rotation before we form a small committee that will run the league?”

“Yes, that is logical… Hmmm, team events?  It looks like my list only had two suggestions.”

“Yes, Basketball and tug-of-war. I’m kind of partial to a good game of handball myself. Let’s say we add that one to the list that gives us three leagues. hmmmm softball,” she looked it up on her PADD.” yes that one is always good but I think you’re right I’m not sure that our holodecks are large enough.” She tapped her fingers on her desk. “However, I remember when I was young another game much like softball called Wiffle Ball. Same rules but the equipment is different and space needed is more doable on holodecks the size that we have.”

The Vulcan looked at his PADD. “Logically speaking, looking at what is required I think the tug-of-war league would be the easiest to set up so that should be where we should start.”

The two women nod. “That makes sense” as they too looked at their PADDs.

Chief looked at the view screen and the four sports listed, moving tug-of-war to the top of the list. “To set up a schedule, can we agree on a four-month league length, one month for practice and three for the actual event.” She pulled up a version of the proposed schedule on the view screen on a calendar of events. “So, what should we place after the tug-of-war league?”

The Vulcan looked at the screen and then at the four events listed.” would it not be logical to just go in the order we have it listed? Tug-of-war, Basketball, Handball, Wiffle Ball.”

The petty officer nodded. “That works for me.”

Chief Thorn filled in the rest of the schedule in that order. “There we go. Oh and Commander Rigras has already procured the trophy for the winning department in the intramural sports to win and display in their section and then they defend it in the next league. She is hoping it would set up a ship’s tradition that would help with morale onboard.” She stood and went to the secondary office/meeting room joining her office and retrieved a wooden box, carrying it back in both her arms. She placed it on her desk and opened it. “I present the Dragon’s Egg trophy, to go to the winner of each league season and defended in the next. The losing department passes it onto the winning section if it is not them.” She opens the box and inside nestled in a well-designed piece of burled wood is a clear resin-like material egg inside of which are a sleeping baby gold and green dragon. “The commander worked with the engineers on DS47 to create this for us, what do you think?”

The room was silent as the two others just looked at the newly minted trophy in front of them.

They spent the next hour or so going over and setting up the actual league and competition schedule for the first season, it was decided that the tug-of-war competitions were to be held on Friday nights weekly and would be held in the Dragons Wings promenade areas help bring the crew together. It was also decided that Petty Officer Tamera would lead the intramural league committee that would be responsible for setting up and running each sporting events season.

“I think that is a good start for the M&R committee. “Though I would like to add something to the schedule to be monthly, that we could start upon completion of the first part of the upcoming mission. I was thinking the other day of what it must have been like on old Earth when they used to go to something called a drive-in movie and I was wondering how we could recreate that on the Dragon.”

The two others quickly start typing and reading from their PADDS.

“Could we not use the promenade area for something like this? Maybe using the Holographic projectors already in place to show a movie on the large wall space”

“Yes, yes that could work.”

“Chief, I see that the Drive-in died out, in use, after the 1980s or so. But I see that something else was done that is very similar. They called them Movies in thePark. I think something more along those lines would be better suited to us. After all, the promenades are set up to be large park-like areas.”

The Vulcan Ensign looked at Petty Officer Tamera, as he continued to read about these movies in the park from old Earth entertainment history. “It makes the most sense, logically speaking, to go down this path of thought. I would agree to this event.”

The chief snapped her fingers. “That decided then, our first monthly event will be a Movie in the Park to be held on one side of the Dragons Wings promenade. Hmmmm I’ll put this one together as I have some ideas on a couple of old Earth movies we could play that night to start things off.”

A couple of hours later two view screens in the WatchTower go active. One displays a rotating image of the Dragons Egg trophy asking which department will be the first department to win the trophy and advertising the start of the intramural tug-of-war season. The second screen advertises Movies on the Promenade. Underneath this is displayed two versions of old-fashioned movie posters the one on the left is for “Grease” and on the right is “Blue Hawaii” with a brief synopsis of the movie underneath, the play time of 1800 above the left and 2000 above the right. Advertised for the upcoming Saturday night.

24010219.0700

Lieutenant Zhaishi was sitting at her desk looking over the reports from the shift turnover that morning and checking against the reports from her shift turnover the evening prior.” Check and double-check everything is what they always said in the academy. Hmmmm I see that the gamma shift did not get to that service bot issue on decks six and fourteen. I’ll have to send crews out for those this morning. Too many stories about service drones having habits that have become overlooked over time and now are just part of the bo’s persona.” She looked out over the main engineering, noticing Chief Samples making his way to her office through the room’s glass wall that faced the warp core.

“Come on in chief.” she gave him a welcoming smile, locking her eyes on him as he entered which made the smile seem slightly flirtatious. “Grab yourself a cup of coffee and take a seat.”

“Thank you, ma’am, Don’t mind if I do. It Was an early start today.”

She raised an eyebrow at hearing this. “Ohhhh, anything I need to be aware of?”

“Looks like we had three crewmen report to sick bay this morning with gastrointestinal issues. The two of them share quarters and the third is their neighbor.”

“Are you thinking it’s a replicator issue?”

“About the only thing that makes sense ma’am, unless they purchased something on DS47 and saved it for after their shift last night.”

She chuckled at this. “Well one we can look into the other is beyond our control and we would chalk it up as poor judgment on their part.”

“Yes, ma’am. I tasked a couple of the crew to look into it this morning. Other than that. “ he took a sip of his coffee. “Nothing to report on my end.” He looked at his PADD.  “Hmmm, mind if I take a seat as we wait for the rest of the department heads for the daily brief.”

“Go right ahead chief. I’m just finishing up my notes for the brief as we speak.”

A chuckle emanated from Chief Samples as he read over the overnight reports. “ Ahhh I see that Scrubber has struck again. I think we may have to chalk it up to that’s just how he is ma’am. From what I’ve heard he has been that way since he was activated onboard.”

“Scrubber??”

“What the folks on deck six have taken to calling their service bot, seems like the little fellow has a thing for scrubbing anything in its way including crew who are in the hallway. No one has been able to fix him so far, nor can they find a glitch or fault in his programming. The idea has been thrown around to put a light on him or some other warning device so folks know that he is around and to stay out of his way.”

“I’ve heard of bots like this, but not on my ship unless we have no choice and have tried everything we can to fix it.”

Chief Samples chuckled.

Several minutes later Chief Samples stood as the various engineering department heads started to filter into the chief’s office, he was allowed to stay being her highest-ranking NCO.

A few of them nodded toward him as they took seats or stood.

“Ok, looks like everyone is here. I’ve sent you all the daily reports and today’s checklist. A couple of points to highlight. Lieutenant Oth’iz, Lieutenant Viameli is still reporting that the ship’s ass end is loose, especially during evasive maneuvers. Let’s get that under control, I don’t care what needs to be done or how you do it just get it fixed. Not sure about the rest of you but I’ll be quite pissed if we take a torpedo hit back here just because the ship couldn’t turn fast enough to avoid it.”

“Yes ma’am. I’ll get right on that. Damn directional outlets on the impulse engines, we think.”

“I don’t want to hear, we think, I just want it fixed. We are heading towards Breen space, need I say more?”

“No, chief. We will get on it.”

“Good, see that you do.” 

Chief Samples looked down at his PADD as he felt it vibrate with a new message notification, which he quickly read and typed in a short reply. “Excuse me chief, just got word from sick bay, our three crew are cleared for duty and are on their way back. Still waiting on the diagnostic results from their replicator. Though, the team I sent did say there was evidence of food containers from one of the shops on DS47 in the room. I told them to continue with the diagnostic on the replicator to make sure. But it looks like we can just chalk this one up to some bad decisions made.”

Lieutenant Zhaishi replied with a nod.

“Next, as you all are aware we will be launching an array from the starboard mission bay. Once we get the go-ahead from the bridge we will start the launch procedure. The first shuttle will meet the first piece outside of the mission bay and using its tractor beam will move the piece to the predetermined location and start the deployment process. This will be followed by the next three pieces which will be added to the first piece using the Dragons’ worker bees. Between now and then, Ensign Shichui, have your team go over the array and make sure we are good to go. Then, get with the operations department “ she checks her PADD “, Ensign Boyd, who is the starboard mission bay quartermaster. Make sure everyone is on the same page on the launch procedures and the timing. Make sure those worker bee crews are fully briefed and understand their roles.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be in the first shuttle overseeing the process, if that is ok?”

“That’s fine.” she gave him a nod. 

The meeting lasted another thirty minutes going through the days checklists and planning for the upcoming array deployment.

24010220.0800Kr’antren exited his ready room as the Dragon dropped out of warp.

“Not bad, Lieutenant Sustram only a couple of minutes earlier than you had forecasted. Not bad at all.” he walked toward Commander Rigras who was sitting in the center chair. “Anything to report Aryanna?”

“Nope, we came out of warp a bit earlier than originally planned, as I thought it prudent to get a look at the area before arriving at the deployment coordinates. The last update we had from the Osiris was forty-eight hours ago and they just did a quick pass-through. However, they were showing Breen patrol activity while they were here.” she stretched as she stood. “ you have the conn, Captain.” she handed him the dragon chain ring.

Taking the ring from her and placing it in his pocket he took a seat. “I have the conn.”

He turned toward his science chief. “Lieutenant Zoltia, conduct long and short-range scans, please. Let’s see what is out there.”

He turned toward the aft station. “Anything on your end, Lieutenant?”

“Hmmmmm, nothing besides what we would consider ordinary comms.”

Kr’antren turned and looked toward his operations chief who he could see was nodding in agreement.

“Aryanna, Didn’t the Osiris report picking up a tail while they were in the area? Albeit closer than we are, at the moment, to the Confederacy’s security zone.”

“Yes, sir, looks like they picked up a two-ship formation. Looked to be two Confederacy interceptors. They stayed just on the edge of the Osiris’s long-range scan distance. I expect that we will garner a bit more attention than a couple of interceptors.”

“Never can tell with the Breen. Let’s make sure to keep our eyes and ears open.”

“On it.”

“Captain, scans are complete. Analyzing the data now. Looks like we are in the clear sir.”

Kr’antrne nodded and ran a hand through his beard. “Helm take us to the deployment coordinates, impulse. Science, keep running those scans. I want to know if you see anything out of the ordinary.”

“Expecting company?” Aryanna looked from the main view screen to Kr’antren.

<<” He’d be stupid not to be, the Breen are not something to take lightly.”>> 

“This close to the confederacy?” he shrugged his shoulders and continued to run a hand through his beard.

<<” Have you ever noticed that he does that with his beard when he is thinking or when he feels that something is off?”

“I have.”>>

“Lieutenant Zhaishi, are your crews ready?” Aryanna asked the chief engineer.

“Yes. ma’am. Ensign Shichui is standing by with the shuttle Quetzalcoatl and the shuttles Lindwurm and Amphithere are also standing by. The Quetzacoatl will be handling pieces one and four. 

Aryanna nodded.”Nice to see you on the bridge, chief.”

Zhaishi nodded and smiled.

“Captain, the latest scans are showing a warp trail roughly twenty-four hours old. Looks to be from a Breen cruiser. We are not picking anything else up right now.”

Kr’’Antren ran his hand through his beard one more time.

“Sir, the deployment location is roughly 1000 kilometers forward of us.”

“Acknowledged, helm. Take us to 250 kilometers from the predetermined coordinates and start a slow orbit of the location.”

“Aye, captain.”

“Captain, I’m just barely picking up a faint signal.” Lieutenant Scamandrius, stated from the intelligence station. “Even with the upgrades to the sensors I am just barely picking up the signal.”

“Any idea on what it is, lieutenant?”

“It’s not a ship, that much I can say for certain. Doesn’t seem to be moving.”

“Distance?”

“Not sure, it seems to be inside the Breen security area though.”

“Not a ship?”

“No sir seems to be emanating from a stationary position from what I’m seeing.”

“Kr’Antren, could be a subspace comms array similar to the one we are deploying or something like it,” Aryanna said from her seat.

Kr’Antren turned back toward the main view screen as the Dragon started to enter its orbit.

“That was the first thing that came to mind. Though I don’t like what that would mean. Have an idea, might as well use the assets we have at our disposal.” he tapped on the internal comms button on his armrest.“ Commander Thornton, Captain Kr’Antren. Change of plans, can you come up to the bridge please.”

“Which plans, captain? The patrols? or the look-see?”

“The look-see, I’ll explain when you get up here.”

“On my way.”

“You, going to ask him to go take a look.”

“That’s the idea, it’ll mean extending our time here. But I think we should be ok.”

“I agree, I’d rather know what’s out there than not know. Besides, I’m sure the task force would be interested in the information.”

“Lieutenant Sustram, Deploy Blue. Just on the other side of our short-range scan distance as planned. Have them patrol in the opposite direction of our direction of travel.”

“Aye, Captain.” They watched as a three-ship formation exited the forward shuttle bay of the Dragon and entered into warp.

“Lieutenant, give the go order to the Quetzacoatl. Chief, the deployment operation is all yours.”

“Yes, sir.” She tapped her console’s comms button to open the channel with the  Quetzacoatl and Ensign Shichui. “Ensign, you are a go-to start phase one. ”

“On our way, ma’am”

“Ensign Boyd, you are cleared to open the starboard bay iris. Deployment to commence when you have confirmation from the Quetzacoatl that they are in position.”

“Yes, ma’am. Opening the starboard iris, now.”

Kr’antren nodded as he heard the conversation. Hearing the turbolift doors open he turned to face them. Seeing that it was Commander Thornton in a flight suit, he stood and made his way toward the intelligence console. “Commander, over here.”

“Here’s the latest. Lieutenant Scamandrius is seeing signs of something just over in the Confederacy security zone. Now I know we still see this as part of the Expanse and open for all traffic but as you know the Breen are sticklers for what they consider theirs.”

Scamandrius nodded as the Captain talked. “Sir, it may be something similar to what we’re doing.” They all look at the main view screen watching as the shuttle starts to move the first piece of the array.

“That’s a bit outside their controlled space,” Thornton mumbles around the pipe. 

“That’s what I was thinking, and I can only think of a few reasons why they would put something out this far from their borders.”

“Either they are taking an interest in what we are doing or…” he pointed with his pipe toward the main view screen.

“Yaaaa, it’s the or part that has me thinking.”

“Let me guess, you want us to go take a look?” as he placed the pipe back in his mouth.

“Can you?”

“How far is it?”

Scamandrius pulled up the information on his holo display. “Roughly two days at warp 7 in an Arrow.”

“Hmmmm.  This is the type of thing the arrows are meant for. We would have to do some reconfiguring. Could we get a few extra crew, preferably one of two from his department. “ he nodded toward Scamandrius and then looked toward the view screen for a minute, “an operations officer and two engineers should do it. Along with two flight crews from us to rotate for shifts.”

Kr’Antren looked over at Lieutenant Zhaishi. “Lieutenant, can you give up two engineering officers to join the commander and his crew on a little excursion?”

“I think we can do that.”

Scamandrius looked up from the holo. “I have two good analysts that I think will be good for this one, I’ll pass a message to them now.”

“It’ll take us a few hours to reconfigure, then we should be ready to go, Captain.”

“Let’s do it.  Zhaishi and Scama tell your folks to report to Commander Thornton.”

Commander Thornton gave each of them a curt nod and departed the bridge.

Kr’Antren returned to his chair. 

“So intelligence gathering or expansion?” Aryanna asked from her chair.

“I’d prefer the first over the second, easier to deal with. The second one tends to get messy.”

“I would have to agree with you on that. Any ideas?”

<< chuckles ” You mean, besides yours?”>>

“Besides continuing with our mission, not much else we can do right now till we hear back from Commander Thornton. Let’s get ourselves ready though just in case we have to move quickly if he runs into any complications.”

Aryanna nodded.

24010220.0900

Quetzalcoatl, this is Ensign Boyd. I am deploying the first piece of the array now.” a long cylindrical item started to slowly exit the Dragons starboard side, Iris.

“We see it, Ensign. We are attaching tractor beams now.”

The crew of the Quetzalcoatl move the first piece of the array into position and with the help of Ensign Shichui working the tractor beams they align the piece into its proper position as two worker bees arrive. The Lindwurm slowly moves the next piece from the Dragon.

Ensign Shichui glanced up and watched the Lindwurm, via the shuttle’s rear-facing camera displayed on their console screen. “Lindwurm, advise approaching 180 degrees from our current position. Docking clamps are showing unlocked and open.”

“Roger,Quetzalcoatl. We are starting to rotate the 2nd piece as we speak and moving it into position.”

“I see you, Lindwurm. Alpha and Bravo please hold your positions as the Lindwurm moves the 2nd piece into position.”

Shichui received two quick affirmatives over the comms channel as the two worker bee pods held their position just slightly behind and starboard of the Quetzalcoatl.

“Lindwurm, hold your current position, please. I’m rotating piece one 5.3 degrees port. There we go that should line things up a bit better. Lindwurm, you are cleared to proceed. Alpha and Bravo she’s all yours for final docking and lockdown procedures.”

Ensign Shichui watched as the two worker bee pods approached the two pieces of the array and slowly moved them into the correct position and mated the two pieces together.

“Locking the clamps now, all systems are showing green. Lindwurm you are cleared to return to the Dragon.”

The process was repeated as the third piece was brought from the Dragon under the power of the Amphithere. This piece was slightly larger in circumference than piece two and had a domed shape to it. 

“Dragon, Quetzalcoatl is returning to the starboard side Iris for the last piece to the array.”

“Affirmative Quetzacoatl, We are showing array operations in the green and functioning as per guidelines. We are already receiving signals from the array’s weather tracking systems along with readings from the short-range sensors.”

Again the process repeated itself as the fourth and final piece was brought from the Dragon and attached to the array.

“That’s it folks, the array is all in one piece and looks to be operating normally. Alpha and Bravo the Quetzalcoatl will escort you back to the Dragon.”

Aboard the Dragon over the next couple of hours diagnostics were run and system programming was updated as needed.

24010220.2200

“Captain, The new array is confirming what I suspected. There is some sort of array just over the Breen security zone. We are receiving messages from various sources.” Lieutenant Scamandrius said from his console.

Kr’Antren looked over towards the comms officer and received a nod in the affirmative as he stood and made his way over to the comm officer’s console. “Can we tell what is being said?”

“Working on it sir, the computer is trying to analyze the data and separate the various messages.” the comms officer held a hand toward the earpiece they wore and shook their head as they tried to separate what they were hearing. 

Kr’Antren turned toward Lieutenant Scamandrius. “Anything on your end? Can you boost the signal ?”

“Same on our side, sir. It’s not the signal strength but the abundance of messages being transmitted over very specific channels.”

Kr’Antren looked over at Aryanna. “Commander, send a message to Task Force command. Let them know that we have found something of interest. Inform them that we have already sent an arrow from the 612th to investigate.”

“Sending as we speak, Kr’Antren.” She got up from her chair and walked over to the intelligence console.

“Ma’am, it’s all in bits and pieces. We can’t lock onto any one particular transmission. The computer is recording them though and my folks are starting to analyze it.” He shook his head as he watched the data come across his console he pulled his headphones out from a side pocket, put them on, and tried to listen to the transmissions. “Comms, I’m going to try to slow down the transmission to see if I can make it all out. Not speaking Breen doesn’t help but maybe I can help decipher when messages start and stop.”

“Works for me lieutenant.” she looked up at the captain. “ Sir, I can say this though it seems to me like they are broadcasting these transmissions. It’s not between any ships in particular. It’s almost like they are making sure that all possible ships in the area can hear whatever it is.”

Kr’Antren ran a hand through his beard, nodded, and returned to his seat. “Helm, continue with our current orbital path. Lieutenant Sustram, anything from red’s?”

“Nothing yet sir, last time they reported everything was normal. We are getting ready to launch the greens, should I let them know anything is changing in the mission?”

“Not right now, but let them know that things are changing and we may require them to return earlier than planned.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kr’antren turned toward Aryanna. “Hope you like puzzles, as I think we just found one that has many pieces to be found.”

“Not particularly. However, I’ve always liked a good ol’ mystery story.” Aryanna replied.

Kr’Antren nodded and ran his fingers through his beard wondering what the next few hours will bring to them.

“Captains log: 240103.22

We have spent the last few days travelling the long way around toward the Expanse. We made a stop at Bravo station to get replacement ships and crew and to replenish supplies, picked up several more security and intelligence personnel to help us realize my new vision for the Dragon, An exploratory cruiser and the task force’s premier intelligence operations platform.

One thing that the conflict in the Deneb sector taught me is that we need to be ready for any type of mission at all times. We took losses during the conflict and they will be remembered; but we must learn from those losses, and what contributed to them. “

Aryanna took a sip of a lukewarm Raktijino and grimaced. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly as she looked out her ready room’s single window panel.

“Are we ready, have I given the crew enough time and space to mourn? I hope so as I have ordered the Dragon to the coordinates of the Breen array we found before the whole Deneb sector business. The array that led a particular Breen captain to not only threaten this ship and its crew but also threaten the entire Thomar Expanse. I have decided it is time, time to call his hand and see what cards he is holding.”

Aryanna stood and ran her hands over her tunic as she picked up her PADD. “Computer, end and save the captain’s log.”

The computer beeped in response.

Aryanna made her way out of the ready room and onto the bridge.

Aryanna approached the center chair as Skagath stood and handed her the ring. “We are just exiting the badlands, captain. Feels good to be home, doesn’t it?”

Aryanna looked down at the Tellarite and nodded, “it does.” as she took her seat. Viameli, set a course for that Breen array. Let’s see what they have to say now.”

“Yes, ma’am. Coordinates are locked in and the course is plotted.”

“Hit it, helm”

<<”That’s it; hit it, that’s your thing?”

“What’s wrong with it, it works”

“Yaaa sure it does, but it’s so boring. We got to work on that young lady, we need something original, strong, and something that fits you.”

“Whatever you say old man.”>>

“Captain, we are five hours out from the array’s coordinates, how do you want to handle this?”

Aryanna turned toward Meadow, “ideas?”

“Well if this was a pure diplomatic meeting I’ve always been one for shooting it straight in this type of situation. So, I say we put the proverbial ball in their court.”

“Zoltia, anything?”

“No, ma’am. Just the array. So either they don’t know we are here…”

“Or they are waiting for us to make the first move.” Aryanna finished the sentence for her science chief.

“Viameli, let’s hold position here and see what happens.”

Meadow looked over at Aryanna as she tapped her hand on her console. “I may have an idea to give them a nudge.”

Aryanna looked at her then chuckled. “Well seeing as the array is still here I’m pretty sure they know why we are; so maybe a nudge in the right direction wouldn’t hurt.”

Meadow stood and walked toward the helm and ops consoles, placing a hand on the back of each chair.

“This is the USS Dragon hailing any confederacy vessel that can hear this. As you are aware, the hostilities in the Deneb Sector have ended. This array and several more like, so read around the Thonar Expanse, are in direct violation of the Treaty of Gavaria. As per chapter twenty-one section Mike, sub chapter six point three. No entity shall emplace items such as arrays or platforms that have are offensive or defensive in nature with in the agreed upon limits of the known region of space of the Thomar Expanse. We could continue citing the mentioned chapter but we think you get the point. As per the said treaty the federation is here to serve and protect and as such has deemed the arrays mentioned prior fall into this category. You have forty eight hours to remove the weaponized pieces of the mentioned arrays or the federation will have no choice but to remove them for you.”

Aryanna raised an eyebrow. “I knew there was a reason why I chose you. Nicer than how I would have said it.”

“Just one of the many hats I wear.” She tapped the back of Viameli’s chair. “comms, put that on an hourly repeat.

“Yes, ma’am”

“Well, the ball is in their court as they used to say. “As she returned to her seat.

Aryanna turned toward the science chief, “Well, since we are here and waiting. Zoltia, can you find us something interesting to go look at.”

“We can do our best ma’am. Anything in particular?”

“Nope, just don’t want to sit here for who knows how long. Gets kind of boring.”

“Nothing right now ma’am. I will keep an eye out in case anything pops up. Most of the systems in this sector are Breen controlled so we could pay one of those a visit.”

“It’s an idea Aryanna, though the array problem and a federation ship showing up at one of their controlled systems may raise too many flags with them.”

“True” as she sat back in the center chair. I’m open to ideas folks.”

“We could start looking at the array closer, see what we can learn. Maybe fill in some gaps on Breen technology?” Scamandrius said.

“Would be interesting to see what improvements they made to those neutralizer weapons. They seemed to hit harder when we faced them in the Deneb sector.” Skagath added.

“That’s true.” Aryanna said as she looked at something on her console.

“Zoltia, let’s start taking a look at this array shall we?”

“Yes, ma’am”

Meadow enters the bridge with a mug of coffee and her PADD. “Good morning everyone.” as she looked around the bridge. “Is the captain…?”

Scamandrius pointed towards the captain’s ready room. “I don’t think she ever left.”

Meadow shook her head, “Captains” as she made her way to her chair and placed her coffee in its usual spot and put her PADD down in her chair. “Guess I should do my First Officer duties and go check on her.

The young lieutenant sitting in the center chair looked up. “Ma’am, rumor has it that she is not a morning person. The last gamma shift person who tried got a mug of something launched at them.”

“Thank you for the warning lieutenant, but what type of first officer would I be if I didn’t take one for the crew. Better me than one of you.”

The lieutenant chuckled “yes ma’am”

Meadow approached the ready room door and looked over her shoulder. “Wish me luck” as she knocked on the door.

“Enter”

“Aryanna, it’s Meadow” as she entered the captain’s ready room, made her way to the replicator, and ordered the captain’s usual morning Raktijino extra strong. She looked over her shoulder to see the captain sprawled out on the room’s couch. “You know you have quarters to do that in.”

“Yaaaa, I know. But this waiting has me on edge.”

“I can understand that, but I’m pretty sure the gamma shift crew can handle most things that come their way and if it was something they couldn’t I’m willing to bet they would have called for you.”

Aryanna sat up and ran a hand over her face and hair. “Hmmmmmmm, is this my counsellor talking or my first officer?”

“A little of both.” as she walked over and placed the captain’s raktajino on the coffee table. “You know you have built up a reputation amongst the Gamma shift bridge crew. Something about throwing a mug at someone checking on you.”

Aryanna chuckled. “Good, it will keep them on their toes. In addition, it was not a mug it was my boot. Damn ensign came into the room and didn’t say anything, scared the shit out of me.” As she reached and took a sip from the mug. ”Ahhhhhh”

“Well, the shifts are changing, figured you would want to know so you can get ready for the day. “As she looked at the captain’s obviously disheveled appearance.

“Guess I should. I will be on the bridge in a few minutes. Let me get a sonic shower and a fresh uniform on.”

Meadow got up and made her way out of the ready room, as she stepped back on the bridge. “Report lieutenant, anything new?”

“Nothing out of the usual ma’am. We continued to see sporadic scans of the ship from the array. But nothing else. No sign of any ships in the area.”

“Very well.” as she held out her hand and received the ring. “Have a nice night, lieutenant.”

She took a seat in the center chair as the gamma shift lieutenant stood, stretched and made his way toward the turbo lift.

“Captain, we have two ships dropping from warp, 1000 kilometers off the port side.”

Aryanna sat forward in her chair. “I was beginning to wonder if they would show up.”

“Captain, it’s the ZadkWak.” Sustram said from his console.

One of the Breen ships moved slightly as it began to face toward the Dragon as the other approached the array.

“Captain, they are hailing us, no video voice only.”

Aryanna looked over at Meadow. “Well, it was your message.”

Meadow nodded “Put them through, ensign.”

“Ahhhh captain Kr’Antren it seems that you have been busy.”

Meadow looked at Aryanna with a raised eyebrow.”

“Capt Kr’Antren is no longer in command of the Dragon. Captain Rigras is now in command.”

“Ahhhh the Trill first officer from the last time we met, interesting.” The transmission went silent for a moment. “And who am I talking to now?”

“This is Lieutenant Bearsong the First Officer.”

“Ahhh, yours is the voice from the message.”

The view screen showed the bow of the Dragon facing the Chel Grett class cruiser as the both spun in what some would think was a synchronized dance but others would know it for what it was, not letting one get into a better position than the other.

“It is.”

“I’ve heard that Thot Griet is still quite upset about what you did to his fleet.”

Meadow looked at Aryanna and shrugged her shoulders. “Who is he? Don’t think we have talked to anyone recently with that name.”

“He is, well was, the commander of the fleet that you cleverly attacked without provocation.”

“Nope, don’t know him. So sorry to hear about that, though.”

“Quit playing games, we all know where you were several weeks ago. We have records of your warp signature throughout our southeastern region. No need to try to deny it.

“Oh, we don’t deny it. We just did not know who the leader of the fleet was. Commander Zeln, did you really think that when your people joined up with the dominions’ lost fleet and attacked the Deneb sector that the federation would not respond.”

“We expected it, we would be stupid not to. However, that is the past and today is the now. We are here today to discuss other… matters.”

“Indeed, I hope your friends are removing the weapon systems on that array.”

“Maybe they are, maybe they are not. Who’s to say?”

Aryanna looked at her console and pulled up a small split screen on the main view screen showing the other Breen ship approaching the array.

“I hope they are doing what needs to be done.”

“Who knows, I have my orders and they have theirs. My orders were to ascertain who had made the transmission and if possible see what their motives were. As I now know who made the transmission I am certain I can guess what you are here for. And let me warn you the Breen confederacy would not take too kindly to you or any other entity messing with something that does not belong to you.”

“Then we would i hope your friends have orders to either move said item or disable and remove the weapon systems on said item. If not we will have no choice but to enact the powers granted to us by the treaty which your confederacy agreed to.”

They hear something slam over the comms. “How dare you threaten us? Who do you think you are?  The Expanse belongs to no one, and you federations types had better watch out, you are after all, you are very far from help.”

Aryanna looks up from her console. “Commander, are you threatening us? I do not take threats lightly and as you have already mentioned you know what this ship and my crew are capable of doing.”

“Ahh the captain speaks, how nice of you to join us. Moreover, you may take that, as you will. I’m here to ascertain what your intentions are.”

Meadow gives the captain a nod. “We are here to make sure that your item does not cause an issue with anyone in the area. If we deem it a threat then we will treat it as one and make sure that it no longer poses a threat.”

A deep-throated chuckle is heard over the transmission. “What is the old earth saying, messing with a tiger’s tail only gets you the fangs. You may want to think about those next actions Captain and how the repercussions may be felt throughout the expanse.”

“Again, the threats.” Aryanna held up a hand toward Meadow to allow her to continue the conversation.

“Words are just that, words. Actions on the other hand are something else.”

“That is true Commander and let’s hope your actions today speak louder than the words you are currently spewing from that helmeted mouth of yours. If I were someone else, i would think that you are trying to divert my attention. I hope that is not the case, commander.”

“As I have already told you, they have their orders and I have mine. Which pertains to your ship and crew. You see you are something of an unknown and the confederacy does not like the unknown. Your actions spoke volumes for what type of fighter you are.”

“Sounds like we did our job then. Those are actions that I felt were the appropriate ones for the circumstances” Aryanna looked over at Meadow and then toward Scamandrius. Meadow nodded.

“Indeed. Some would say they were the means to an end, would they not? Enough to get the job done but no more than what was needed. The thing is, now you are on the confederacies radar, an unknown player on the chessboard, as you will. Moreover, we do not like not knowing who is on the board. “

“Ahhh just think of us as a pawn on the board then, not too valuable and expendable if the need is there.”

Another chuckle is heard over the transmission. “I think you are a bit more than that, captain. Moreover, we both know that. Now don’t we.”

Meadow approaches Aryanna and leans over “It looks like the other ship has taken position in close proximity to the array. Scamandrius and Zoltia both agree that it looks like they could be there for a couple of reasons, one being the reconfiguration for tow operations another being to upgrade/remove pieces.”

“Let’s keep a close eye on them.”

Meadow nodded and returned to the intelligence console.

“Commander, I can do this all day. However, I do have other things that I could be doing.”

“Such as”

“Paperwork, eating my breakfast, checking out a system that is close by. Just to name a few.”

“Ahhhhh. You know that is a Breen protectorate system. Are you looking for trouble, captain?”

“Not really, but my bosses said go look so I have to go look. You know make sure everyone is ok; no one is being made to do things they do not want… To tell the truth it is usually quite boring, having to check up on confederacy controlled systems. Always more paperwork then what it is worth. “

“That system is part of my normal patrol area, captain. I can assure you that everything is fine.”

“Good, then you won’t mind if we go take a look.”

“We just left there, everything is fine.”

“See now you have my attention. You are playing that everything is fine; we were just there, card. Which makes me question what you are playing at. Is everything fine? Is it not? What will I find? “

“You will find a system, with planets that follow the laws and mandates of the confederacy. That is what you will find.”

“So slaves and slave trading”

“That is our culture, the federation may frown on our culture but it is our way.”

“We saw your version of slavery; I doubt those people we saved on Deptrock six would agree.”

A slam is heard of the transmission. “I knew it, it was you.” A chuckle is heard. “Well, I will be adding that to my next report, I’m sure my higher ups would love to know who pulled that off.”

Aryanna looked over at the comms office and held a finger to her lips, received a nod in reply and turned toward Bearsong. “Something is off, he is stalling. What are our other friends doing?”

“We can’t tell for sure, they could be getting ready to tow the array but right now they are holding position.”

Aryanna nodded, “He is waiting for us to make a move.” She tapped her gloved fingers on the armrest. “Viameli, how long will it take us to reach the Suelaiktnor system?”

“72 hours give or take a couple, Captain.”

She looked over at science. “About a week for the survey?”

“Yes ma’am. That should give us enough time.”

She turned back toward Bearsong and Scamandrius. “Should that be enough time?”

Bearsong stood and faced the main view screen as Scamandrius looked through his holo LCAR display. “Yes ma’am. Either it will be gone or it will still be here.”

“And if it’s still here in the same configuration we will have bigger issues to deal with.” As Aryanna turned back toward the main view screen.”

“Yes, ma’am”

Aryanna let out a deep breath, looked at the Comms fixer and pointed overhead as.”

“Commander, I believe we are at an impasse.”

“Ahhhh is that what you call this, both of us wanting something that neither can give. Yes, it would seem we are at such a place.”

“Indeed, we both know what the federation wants but what is it that you wanted? If I may ask.”

“Why that simple Captain. I wanted to test my ship, my crew and myself against the finest that Starfleet has to offer. Nevertheless, the little issue between our two groups has now been brought to an end. Sooo I shall not get my wish, for now. However, I do enjoy our little impromptu meetings. Maybe someday but not this day.”

“Well Commander, maybe someday. However, today we have another mission that is calling our name and we need to make our way in that direction. We will, of course, check back here when we are finished in roughly nine to ten federation standard days. We think that should give you plenty of time, should it not?”

“Time? Oh yes, the array. Like I said, they have theirs and I have mine. But I will certainly pass your message.”

“Please do, till later than Commander.”

“Yes, another time then”

The comms officer signals that the Breen ship ended the transmission.

“Viameli, set a course for the Suelaiktnor system.”

—————————————————————————————-

The crew of the Aztec watched as they came out of warp a few days out of the Suelaiktnor system, watched as the two stars slowly revolved. The view of a red dwarf star revolving around an inner blue dwarf was something to behold.

“Captain, welcome to the Suelaiktnor system. “ Darame said from the helms central lone U shaped console.

“Thank you, Darame. Tizor, so what are we looking at?”

“The main star of this system is Suelaiktnor, the blue dwarf in the center. The red dwarf is on an elliptical circular orbit that is roughly 500 earth years in length. The four planets are on elliptical orbits. The M- class planet is the second planet and from the information, we have sits barely inside the habitable zone for the system.

Eric nodded. “So, we start from out here and work our way in.”

Austin nodded as he stood and walked over to join Tizor at the science console.

“Starting with long range sensor sweeps, time to put this enhanced sensor suite to use finally.” Tizor said with a smile. “First things first, let’s check on this red dwarf star. Usually a planet in proximity to a red dwarf would not be habitable. I’m sure finding out what effect this has on this system’s planets would be of interest to someone.”

“Would distance play a part in that?” the science officer sitting at science two asked.

“Possibly?”

Austin looked at the data on the science console wall displays. “I’d be interested to find out why this red star has not picked up any celestial objects itself.”

“Could the blue dwarf be affecting that?” the other science officer asked.

“That’s one thing we can look into, for sure,” Tizor answered as she was looking at the holo LCARS display.

Austin tapped the display. “Well that’s interesting, it’s early still but it looks like the red dwarf is not on the same ellipsis as the rest of the system. The early data is showing that it may be roughly twenty degrees off.”

Tizor looked at the data and nodded in agreement, as the holo display changed the systems map to show this new data in the red dwarfs orbit. “Wonder how they missed that?”

Austin shrugged his shoulders.

“Captain, in the past forty eight hours we have been able to get an idea on the makeup of this particular system.” Tizor stood to the side of the briefing room’s view screen. “We can now say for sure that the red dwarf does have an orbital bath 21.25645 degrees outside of the system’s orbital plane. This circular orbit has taken and elongated the orbit paths of the four planets as its gravitational forces squeeze the orbits.”

“Did we find anything orbiting the red dwarf?”

“Yes sir, we found what looks like a very dense asteroid field at this orbit. We think that this may have been a planet at one time as the data has very large pieces at the core of the field and it does orbit the red dwarf.”

Austin looked at Eric”another thought we had was two celestial objects colliding at one time, as the field does go through the system’s other orbital path at this location.” A line appears between the third and fourth planet orbits.”

Eric sat forward in his chair as he looked at the data.

“Captain, of more interest is what we have picked up on long range sensors. Besides a large number of artificial objects in orbit around the second planet. We are picking up evidence of possible domed areas on the third planet.”

Eric sat up straight and looked at Tizor than at Austin who nodded in reply. “Hold on, are we sure? That should be technologically not possible at the stage we were told they were at.”

“We will need to get closer to say for sure.” Austin added

“How close? As I’m sure that colonization of other planets would be something that would definitely be something that called for closer inspection.”

Ruzguzee blinked several times. ”Indeed, it would. However, we are not seeing any signs of warp travel, so there is that to still consider.”

Tizor looked at her PADD and then at the Captain. “That’s where things get interesting. Seeing, as we would like to get more data on the habitable planet itself we were thinking of an orbit around the fourth planet’s third moon. We have discussed it with Lieutenant Ruzguzee and we believe that this location and the use of the newly retrofitted refractive shield system should make us invisible on any systems they may have.”

“Is the shield ready, Ruz?

“Yes, sir. We were able to run some tests using our shuttles over the past twenty-four hours and we believe we have the parameters set.”

Eric nodded “Very well, I would agree a closer look is needed

Captain we have arrived at the Suelaiktnor system.”

“Thank you Viameli. Zoltia, so where do we start?”

“I would recommend long range scans and probes, at this time captain. Depending on what we find we can then decide on a further course of action.”

Aryanna nodded and motioned for her science chief to proceed.

Zoltia nodded and brought the other science bridge staff to her console for a brief meeting.

“Captain, we feel that a class two probe toward each star, a class seven toward the inhabited planet and a class three toward each of the other planets would be a good start to the survey.”

Aryanna pulled up the specs on the probes on her side console, after reading for a few minutes she nodded. “Agreed, those would make a good start and along with our sensor data should give us a good understanding of the system before we make any further decisions on how to proceed.”

“Captain, sorry for changing the subject but were we expecting anyone else to join us?”

“No, why”

“Well, according to the long range sensor a federation vessel arrived just over a week ago,”

“What? Who?”

Zoltia shook her head “Data is coming in now, looks like the USS Aztec a Rhode Island class. Warp signature shows that they arrived and I am not seeing one for them departing.”

“Are we showing them on sensors?”

Zoltia shook her head.

Aryanna turned to look toward Skagath.

“I’m seeing the same thing, no signs of debris or weapons fire.”

“So, where are they?”

Aryanna tapped at com badge “Meadow, its Aryanna. I’m going to need you on the bridge.”

“I’m just starting my next session, i can be up as soon as we are finished unless…”

“That will work”

Zoltia, go ahead and launch the probes, maybe they will pick up something we are missing. Make sure that call seven gives the planet a wide orbital pass. Last information we have on them is that they are circa 2100 earth technology wise so definitely able to pick up on strange signals in close proximity to them.”

“Yes ma’am” launching the probes now.

Aryanna looked toward science. “Still nothing?”

Zoltia shook her head then turned as one of the other science officers tapped on her shoulder and pointed toward the science 2 screen. “There, think we found something ma’am. We are finding a weak warp signature heading toward the fourth planet. Looks like they may have powered down their warp drive and went under impulse.”

“Skagath, how far are we from…”

“Three to four days, captain. I was just thinking the same thing. If the captain of the Aztec is, any good and they know what type of attention scout/survey vessel this close to the confederacy could garner. Then it would make sense to try and hide their warp signature.”

“Okay, so that explains the faint trail, but how come we can’t see them on our sensors?”

Scamandrius snaps his overly large fingers and chuckles. “Refractive shielding.”

“What, last I heard it was still under development and even then it was being scrutinized as being too close to being a cloak.”

“Hmmmm, it is similar but not quite the same if i understand it correctly, ma’am”

Skagath chuckled, “You can say that, again.”

“I mean, I read the reports and I know a few ships cobbled a preliminary one together during the Lost Fleet operation, but I hadn’t heard of anyone having one.”

“Well ma’am. The latest information I have from my contacts is that they are fielding it on a few ships as a test. Makes sense that they would put it on a scout.

“Even better if that ship has the survey/sensor systems that those Rhode Islands do.” Skagath added.

“Comms, open a hailing frequency.”

——————————————————————————————————–

“It’s the Dragon, sir,” the comms officer said from their console.

Eric stood and straightened his tunic, as did Austin. “Put it on the main view screen”

“This is the USS Aztec, I’m Captain Mathisson and this is my executive officer Lieutenant Rockholdt.

A female trill wearing the pips of a commander is shown on the Aztec’s main view screen.

“I’m Captain Rigras of the USS Dragon, This is my exec Lieutenant Bearsong” She gestured toward another officer sitting just to her right. “We were under the impression that the survey of this system was given to us to complete as per our last set of orders.”

“Yes, a mutual friend in his new found capacity decided that this would be a good way for us to introduce ourselves since it seems we will be working together.” He saw Skagath at the Dragons tactical console and gave him a brief nod in recognition.

“A mutual friend you say.” Aryanna took a brief pause and then let out a long breath. “This mutual friend wouldn’t be a current task force operations officer would he?”

Eric chuckled, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Working together?  How so?” she asked as she retook her seat.

“Well ma’am it looks like that mutual friend of ours went and got himself promoted.”

“Oh geez and he went and got himself a new job to go with that promotion?”

“Yes”

“So what ship did he get?”

“None, well in a weird way he actually got two.”

“Aryanna sat up and looked at the Aztec’s captain. “Don’t tell me they gave him a squadron.”

“Yep”

All of a sudden Skagath started to chuckle.

Skagath looked at Captain Rigras “We are the other ship lass. It’s us and them.”

Aryanna looked at him “Took you long enough, I just wanted the captain there to say It.” as she motioned toward her view screen. “Captain Mathisson, let me guess the Dragon is the lead ship in the squadron?”

“Yes ma’am”

Captain Rigras nodded. “Well then, since we will be working together then may I suggest a meeting on the Dragon? Looks like I have a call to make, so how about tomorrow morning? It should give you plenty of time to make your way to our location.”

“We can do that; I’ll bring my science officer along so she can brief your team. We have made some interesting discoveries since we arrived. I will have them send the data to your team so that they can look it over. “

“That will be fine, unless you have anything else, we shall see you tomorrow morning captain.”

The main view screen went back to show the third moon of the fourth planet in the Suelaiktnor system. “Well, that went better than I expected. From what I have heard about our new squadron mates, I expected something a bit more from her.” as Eric turned toward Austin.

“I think she knew you were just the messenger, I’m willing to bet she is calling Captain Kr’Antren as we speak and will have plenty to say to him.”

—————————————————————————————————-

Aryanna lets out a deep sigh as they exited her ready room. “Gotta give it to the man, he sure knows how to sell you on something.”

“That he does, though I still wonder at what he is playing at taking command of a squadron but running it from task force operations.”

“You heard him he thinks he can do more from there for the squadron then out here. At least he had the wherewithal to make me the squadron exec. Gives me some power to make decisions on the fly and as the mission dictates.”

“Gotta admit, Dragon Squadron does have a ring to it. Seeing as he left the operational side of things to you, what is the play now? “

“I think that depends on what the Aztec has found.”

They both retake their usual seats as the dragon ring is passed back to the captain’s hand, slipping it into a pocket she pats it as if to reassure herself. “Zoltia, did we get the data from the Aztec?”

“Yes, ma’am. There is quite a bit here. Still going through it all. The orbital information will change the maps for the system for sure. Still confirming their early data on the second planet and its populace’s technology level, something seems off.”

“Off? How”

“Well they are supposed to be circa 2100 earth, which would be pre warp but the Aztec is finding signs of substantial colonization of the third planet using domes. From the energy signatures those domes are using force field technology and their systems are giving power signatures akin to modern technology.”

Aryanna sits up when hearing this. “But the last survey had them prewarp?”

“Yes ma’am. And we do not show any warp signatures of any type in the system.”

“Hmmm so they are colonizing on a different planet which shows the energy signatures of a post warp technology.”

“Yes, ma’am”

Aryanna looked over at Meadow. “Well this just got interesting.”

“Hopefully, the probes will give us some more information as I think the Aztec took a stand off approach whereas we decided to go in.” Meadow said as she turned to look at her console. “Looks like we should get some preliminary reports from the class seven probe in about ten hours, so right before the meeting.”

“Speaking of which, have we seen the Aztec on our sensors yet?”

“No, captain.”

——————————————————————————————————

“Welcome to the Dragon, Captain.”

“Thank you, this is my Exec Lieutenant Rockholdt and my chief of science Ensign Cardawe.” as he points to the two individuals standing beside him.

Aryanna points out Lieutenants Bearsong and Zoltia who are already seated at the room’s table. “You may call me Aryanna as it looks like we are all in the same family now.”

Eric nodded “I’m Eric, this is Austin and Tizor”

For the next hour, they go through the Aztecs’ findings along with sharing the data that the probes have sent back so far.

“So now the question is, how did they get the technology? We can both agree that there are no signs of any other warp signatures in the system.”

Meadow stood and walked toward the room’s view screen pulling up an area map of the system and showing the closeness to the confederacies boundaries. “We did have an idea. What if they used a system much like earth did circa late 1900’s to the war. What if they used a system of sending radio frequencies into space? With their closeness to the confederacy it would only be a matter of time before the Breen would have heard them.” she looked at the group as she spoke. “What if those signals were responded to by the Breen?”

Tizor looked at her PADD and then stood to go to the view screen. “It is possible, especially if it was a ship that heard the signal first. Especially if the Breen knew about the inhabitants and were waiting or watching for some sort of signal.”

Eric nodded and looked at Aryanna” it’s not like the Breen live by or use the prime directive, so they could do whatever they wanted if they thought there was some advantage to them. Question is what is their end game? What are they after? If they gave them some technological information why not give them all of it.”

Zoltia joined the other two at the screen. “Maybe they figured they weren’t ready for warp travel? Maybe they were more advanced in other systems versus interstellar travel?”

Aryanna sat back “why get involved at all, then? Zoltia, Is there anything on the third planet where they have built the domes?”

“That data is starting to come in now.” as both Zoltia and Tizor look at their PADDS as they discuss the data between them.

“Interesting, not sure how this will help but the probe is picking up traces of duranium. Not sure how much yet, but there does seem to be the possibility that there are minable quantities on the planet” Tizor says as she looks up from her PADD.

“Well,” Meadow said as she retook her seat next to her captain. “That makes things interesting.” As she starts to type on her PADD. “There are still too many possibilities though. How do you enslave a populace without letting them know they are enslaved?”

Eric sat up in his chair “Now, that’s an interesting question. Do you think…?”

Meadow takes a breath and looks at her PADD. “It makes sense, but how? How would the Breen benefit? If the inhabitants don’t have the ability to deliver?”

“Well that would be the part to figure out, how does one share information for one’s gain without giving the information that would help both parties.”

Zoltia went back to her seat “In this instance too much information would be a bad situation for the confederacy if they were trying to keep a populace under their thumb.”

“So are we saying that the confederacy is in fact enslaving this world without having direct control over them? That would be a new one for them.” Aryanna says from her seat.

“It makes sense captain, why use resources if you don’t have to?” Austin added

Aryanna tapped her gloved hand on the table “Indeed. So where do we go from here?”

“Ma’am, do we get the Angels to prepare the arrows, see if we pick up anything a few days out of the system.”

“That’s an idea, maybe they can pick up something up that we are missing.” as Aryanna tapped on her comrade. “Commander Thornton, join us in the bridge briefing room, please.”

Several minutes later, the doors open as a human officer in a black flight suit enters and takes a seat. “What can the Angels do for you today?”

Aryanna spends a few minutes to bring him up to speed, “Sure, we can do that. Give us a few hours to prep the shuttles and get the crew together.”

Aryanna nodded as he stood and left the room.

Aryanna and Meadow exited the briefing room several minutes after the meeting had finished and the Aztec’s crew had departed.

Viameli stood from the center chair as the other two approached, handing the dragon ring to the captain. “Seems as if the Aztec was not the only gift from Captain Kr’Antren, ma’am. They also brought over the system updates and equipment needed to install a refractive shield onto the Dragon.”

“Yes and I have a crew working on it already. I Wish we had it on board in the Deneb sector, that fleet would have never known what hit them.”

Aryanna raised an eyebrow at hearing this as she retook her seat.

Sustram turned in his seat. “Ma’am. Commander Thornton wanted you to know that they will be ready to launch in about two hours.”

Aryanna nodded, “Good, that’s faster than I thought it would be.”

—————————————————————————————————–

The team in matching yellow and grey jerseys and black cargo pants stand in front of the large matchup board looking over the assigned matches for the day.

“Ok team, looks like we will be facing the Cargo masters today.” as a middle-aged human turned to face the twelve people around him. He looks toward a large muscular Klingon “Tagrahk, you’ll have the anchor in his one.”

“It’ll be my honor.” Tagrahk answered with a nod.

“Sarah will take the lead.” a young human female nods.

“Remember this is our first match for the season; let’s not get any one hurt. I will make the calls from the second position. Remember we work as a team, keep your feet forward of your knees. Looks like we are the third match. So let us go watch the other matches. He then points out eight others from the group. That will make up the team for today. 

These matches are set up in the starboard dragon’s wing and in a way that the crowd can watch from the lower level and from the second level. They work their way towards the match area and see a team in red and black shirts all wearing a large number one printed on the back and front approach one side of the strung out heavy rope. While on the other side a group in blue jerseys approaches their end of the rope.

“Welcome everyone to the first night of the tug -o-war season. Let’s remember the rules as you all have been given.” Chief Thorn stands over the middle of the rope. “Ok then, the first match will be between Deck One and the Blues, the referee will be Chief Ngiazav from security.” An Orion stepped forward wearing a black and white striped shirt and steps up placing one foot on the middle of the rope. He looks at both teams. “You know the rules first over the line,” he points at the two yellow lines, one on either side, about two and half feet from the center of the rope where an orange streamer is tied on. “Wins. You may take your positions.” The crowd watches as the two teams approach the rope and arrange themselves/ “Captains, are you ready?”

A human in red along with another human wearing a blue jersey both nod and say that they are ready.

“You may pick up the rope” as he takes his foot off the rope and takes a step back. He looks at the two teams “Are you ready?” he asks and points as each team captain says that they are. He nods “On my mark, get set, pull”

The match goes for several minutes as the flag moves back and forth. Till finally the flag starts to slowly make its way towards the Deck one side, a little further every couple seconds as finally with a loud ”Heave” from the Deck one captain. They all take a large step backwards and give the rope a single huge tug pulling the rope over the line as the team in blue teams lead person steps over the line.  Chief Ngiazav holds up his right hand to signify that the match is over and who won. As a loud cheer goes through the crowd and the two teams meet in the middle to shake hands.

The human male in yellow and grey nodded as he turned toward Sarah, “Nice strategy.” Then he looked across at a few of the other teams and noticed several having conversations of their own.

The second match took place between the engineering alpha team and the security Bravo team. With the win going to the security team, after a several minute long battle of strategy and strength.

The third match took place between the yellow and grey, engineering Bravo team, and the Cargo masters. This one was rather quick with the win going to the Bravo team, as their opponents seemed a bit lost and confused on exactly what they should be doing as they had thought that their size would be an overpowering advantage.

They stayed to watch and cheer on the remaining teams as the last five matches took place.

————————————————————————————————

“Captain, I’m getting a distress signal from the Bajoran colony on Qisuemna four. Seems as if they are calling for any federation ship to respond.”

Aryanna nodded “How far?”

Viameli turned to face her “four days at warp eight, ma’am.”

“Do they say what the emergency is?”

The comms officer shook her head. “Just that they require assistance.”

“Anyone else closer than we are?”

“No captain, the next closest would be the Williamsburg and according to the latest reports from them, they would take about six to seven days to respond at their max warp.”

“Very well, comms let the Aztec know that we will be responding to the distress signal. Tell Capt Mathisson that we will return as fast as we can. Then respond to the distress call and let them know that we are on our way and that we should be there in four days’ time.