LCDR Varyn K’lev sat at the head of the Culver City’s briefing room table.  Seated around the room were the rest of the ship’s senior staff, except for Chief Bong, who had the conn during this briefing and who K’lev would read in later.  As he looked around the table, it seemed that everyone was nervous to some degree; they could all feel that something big was about to happen.  “How did the conference go?” Lieutenant Lotharys asked, breaking the ice.

K’lev took a deep breath.  “Well, first, the probe worked beautifully,” he said to Lieutenant Pelix and Ensign Tiza.  “Everyone agrees, the visual data confirms the Tholian station, and that the anomaly we saw may be something like an artificial wormhole; the theory is that if it is, then the Tholians may be planning to use it for a larger incursion into Sheliac space.”

A ripple went around the table as the information set in.  “An artificial wormhole, that big…?” Pelix said, a bit incredulously.  “Making short-term artificial micro-wormholes, that’s one thing, but making one large enough for ships to pass through, and holding it open for a prolonged period… that’s not sane, safe, or stable.”

Ensign Ghimir, the ship’s counselor, spoke next, a confused look on his Cardassian features.  “Surely they know how risky that is, right?”

K’lev shrugged.  “We can only hope, but it’s impossible to say.  Either way, though, this may be what the Sheliac are after; assuming it is a wormhole, we don’t know where it leads, but with how they’ve reacted it’s a safe bet that they do, and given how they’ve reacted I’d bet 5 slips of latinum that it’s someplace they don’t want the Tholians going.”

Ensign Phillips chimed in.  “So, what’s the plan?” they asked.

K’lev took a moment to verify that the room was secure; satisfied, he looked around at his senior staff once again.  “Officially, we are to keep minding our side of the border.”  He paused.  “Unofficially, we’re going after it.  The station and anomaly should cross the border into our space soon, so that’ll be our chance.  Commander Aloran thinks Sheliac may try to get it again; if they do, that should then pull some of the Tholian ships away and give us a chance to slip in while the Tholians’re distracted and try to disable the station.  Whole task group will be going.”

For a moment, the room was so quiet one could have heard the proverbial pin drop.  Ensign sh’Livo broke the silence.  “We’re going to attack the Tholians?” she asked, her voice just above a whisper.

“Well, ideally they won’t know we’re coming until we’re there; hopefully the Sheliac can keep their attention.  But,” he paused, “if necessary to defend ourselves while we do this, yes.”

As K’lev’s words sank in, the mood in the room grew more serious, and anxiety levels rose.  “Wouldn’t that cause a larger issue?” Ghimir asked.

“That came up on the call,” K’lev replied.  “We’re not going to move until the station is across the border in its orbit, because then it’s an unlawful incursion into our space; the diplomats will use that to keep the Tholians at bay.”  He paused a moment.  “Interestingly, the theory is that the Tholians, given how they’re acting, may be using outdated star charts or something; they may not actually know that their station is about to cross the border.”

Ensign Hilava spoke next.  “How bad do you think it’ll get?  We have an extra medtech now, but…” She trailed off.

“Well, if things go our way, the only time we should have to fight is at the device itself, so in theory it shouldn’t be too bad.”  K’lev’s eyes met Lieutenant Lotharys’s gaze, the two sharing the same thought: Like we’re gonna get that lucky.  “But I would expect it to get rough, just in case,” K’lev finished.

“To that end,” he continued, looking at his officers in turn, “how are we doing?”  His gaze settled first on sh’Livo.

The young Andorian ensign swallowed hard, anxiety spiking as she was called on first.  “The targeting scanners are back up at full.  Phaser arrays are in good shape, too, as are the torpedo launchers – though now I really wish the Bountiful had brought us some extra torpedoes,” she said ruefully.  “The shield generators seem to be okay too, though with how long we’ve been running them recently I’d be more comfortable if we went after putting them through a full inspection, but…”

K’lev smiled ruefully.  “I wish I could say we had the time to do that, but I’m not sure that we do,” he said apologetically.  “We’ll have to make do with them as they are.”  He then looked to Lieutenant Pelix.  “How are the engines, structural integrity field, and the EPS grid?”

Pelix leaned forward.  “Engines’re ready to go, though when this is all done I’d like to give the core and coils a proper once-over; you’ve been running them hard, and I’d like to be sure there’s no problems hiding.  We’ve not seriously strained the structural integrity field emitters, but my teams’ve checked them anyway; they’re steady.  Haven’t seen any recent issues with the EPS, so I’d say it’s good to go too.”

K’lev now turned to Hilava.  “Is sickbay ready?”

She nodded.  “My team is as ready as they can be, and our stores are fully-stocked.  If we get into a fight, we’ll do the best we can to take care of the wounded.”  She attempted a reassuring smile, though an undercurrent of worry still creased her Ferengi features.

“I have no doubt you will, Hilava,” K’lev said with a smile of his own.  “Speaking of care,” his eyes now landed on Ghimir.  “How’s the crew holding up to all of this?”

Ghimir folded his hands on the tabletop.  “Well, it’s safe to say that everyone I’ve spoken to is nervous, and a bit afraid.  Myself included,” he added with a small chuckle.  “On the whole, there’s no specific causes for concern among that have been raised to me.  But that could also change once the torpedoes start flying.”

K’lev nodded.  “Hopefully this’ll be an easy mission.  But I won’t lie to them; if we’re going to make it through this, the first step is making sure we all know what we’re getting into.”

“I think they’ll appreciate that,” Ghimir said.

“Now, to the subject of supplies,” K’lev said, turning to Tiza.  “Is there anything in the cargo bays we could afford to lose, if we need space?”

Tiza shook his head.  “Pretty much all we’re carrying is stuff we need,” the Xahean said.  “I took the liberty of rotating out some of the last extraneous cargo to the Bountiful.”

“Good call,” K’lev replied.  “Is there anything that can be pre-staged for ready access?  Perhaps additional medical supplies to sickbay, or setting up a backup triage center, if things go sideways?  Stashing power conduit and ODN relays around, so we can quickly replace blowouts?”

Tiza nodded.  “I’ll get my people on it!”

“Quick as you can,” K’lev said.  “This thing could start at any time.”  He now turned to Lotharys.  “Any luck filtering out the gravimetric distortions?  Or are we gonna be stuck with only short-range sensors on this run?”

Lotharys shook her head sadly.  “We’ve tried everything we can think of, but nothing’s really worked.  I think the short-range set is the best we can hope to have, given the circumstances.”

“It’s better than nothing,” K’lev replied.  “Anything new from the probe?”

“Nope,” she answered.  “Just more images.  Based on the course and speed data, I think the ship it’s hitched a ride on is just patrolling the area.  And I don’t think they know that we now know what they’re up to, either; if they knew about the probe, they’d have disabled it by now.”

K’lev smiled; now that was some truly good news.  “Then they may not think we may be about to do something…”  He trailed off for a moment, then finished his poll of his senior staff with his helmsman, Phillips.  “What d’you think, Ari?  Can you get us through to the device?”

“Well, we’ve got the courses and speeds that Tholian ship flew, and have a decent idea of their patrol routes and timings…” they smiled as their eyes met K’lev’s.  “Especially with it coming to us, I think we can make it, and I’d definitely love to try, sir,” they finished.

K’lev clapped his hands together once.  “Excellent news, all of you!”  He took a deep breath.  “Well, nothing left to do, I guess, but get to it.  Back to your posts, everyone, and let’s get ready to do what we need to do.”  With that, the meeting broke up, the senior staff returning to their stations.

((Bridge))

After arriving on the bridge, K’lev took a moment to read Chief Bong in on the meeting on the Farragut and the plan, then took his seat.  “Shipwide channel, please, Chief,” he said.

Bong opened the shipwide intercom channel, then said, “All hands, attention to the captain,” before nodding to K’lev.

K’lev cleared his throat.  “Crew of the Culver City!  I speak to you now, as we are about to embark on a dangerous mission.  We have learned that the Tholians have built a station of some sort near an anomaly in orbit of Rhontaka I, and seem to be planning to use it against the Sheliac somehow.  Thus far, our job – along with the rest of our little flotilla – has been to watch the border, and to make sure that the crisis did not spill into Federation territory.

“The situation has now changed.  Soon, perhaps within the next few minutes, our flotilla will be flying in to try and disable the station after it crosses the Federation border, then capture it.  This will not be an easy task; hopefully the Tholians won’t see us coming, but if they do there can be no turning back.  We will have to fight our way through to do the job that’s been asked of us.  This will not be the first time that Culver City has been asked to do far more than she was built to do, and likely will not be the last time, either.  We may not be a fighting ship, but we will nevertheless be going into harm’s way; in the words of the Terran playwright Shakespeare, ‘once more unto the breach’.

“I won’t tell you to not be afraid.  Instead, I want you to look around yourself, not to the bulkheads and consoles but to your crewmates.  We’re all in this boat together” K’lev smiled privately at the pun “so just as much as your training, find your courage in the people around you.  Look after each other, and we can make it through this.  And I’ll tell you this: for my part, there’s no crew I’d rather face this with than you all.  Now, let’s all attend our duties well, because it’s going to be a busy day.  Captain out.”  At a hand signal from K’lev, Bong closed the channel.